Raikkonen pays his drive-through in Monaco: he should in fact have been forced to start from the back of the grid. (LAT Photo)
Kimi Raikkonen was fortunate to escape a penalty that would have severely hampered his chances of getting into the points in Monaco, it has emerged.
Early in the race the stewards considered a report that said that Ferrari had not finished fitting his tires on the grid, thanks to a delay caused by a wheelnut problem. Raikkonen subsequently received a drive-through penalty, which he took on lap 13. Because of the wet conditions on the track, he lost only a few seconds in so doing. He was passed only by Lewis Hamilton, who was recovering from his early stop, and dropped from third to fourth.
In fact no one seemed to notice at the time that he should have started from the back of the grid or the pitlane, and that a startline marshal should have been told to prevent him from leaving the dummy grid.
The rules read as follows: “When the three minute signal is shown all cars must have their wheels fitted, after this signal wheels may only be removed in the pit lane or on the grid during a race suspension. Any car which does not have all its wheels fully fitted at the three minute signal must start the race from the back of the grid or the pit lane. Under these circumstances a marshal holding a yellow flag will prevent the car (or cars) from leaving the grid until all cars able to do so have left to start the formation lap.”
Heikki Kovalainen, who started from the pitlane, was in 14th place at the time Kimi took his penalty, having gained places largely through others pitting with damage.
It remains to be seen what kind of breakdown in official communications led to the oversight, and it seems that rivals – busy getting their own cars ready in the chaotic, rainy conditions – did not notice.
In the end of course Kimi finished out of the points in ninth, after twice damaging his front wing in incidents (and taking out Adrian Sutil), but had he actually scored, the repercussions might have been more serious. Nevertheless, the matter is likely to be brought up by teams with the FIA in Montreal.
Not surprisingly given that Kimi was on the front row the Ferrari team – which usually knows the rules better than anyone else – chose not to enlighten the marshals on the spot...
