06/11/2021
NEWS STORY
Kimi Raikkonen edged towards a 10-place grid drop at one of his four remaining Grands Prix after receiving his second reprimand of the Mexico weekend.
On Friday, the 2007 world champion was given his first reprimand of the season for failing to follow the race director's instructions, in that he left the track on the left hand-side between turns 1 and 2 and re-joined the track between turns 2 and 3, rather than re-joining by driving to the left-hand side of the bollard at turn 3.
Lewis Hamilton received a reprimand for a similar offence.
Twenty-four later the Finn was back before the stewards for crossing the line and painted area at the pit entrance.
At the time of Lance Stroll's crash which caused the session to be red flagged Raikkonen entered the pit lane after the bollard and then re-crossed the painted area and re-joined the track.
The stewards determined that this was a breach of the FIA Code of Driving Conduct on Circuits and a failure to follow the Race Director's instructions.
With the race director's instructions being that “except in the cases of force majeure (accepted as such by the stewards), the crossing by any part of the car, in any direction, of the painted area between the pit entry and the track, by a driver who, in the opinion of the stewards, had committed to entering the pit lane is prohibited", the stewards accordingly imposed another reprimand.
Should the Finn, who qualified 12th, but will start 10th, incur a third reprimand in any of the remaining races he will automatically receive a 10-place grid drop.
"I think we can be happy with today's result," said Raikkonen, "it's my best qualifying of the year.
"It was very close and it could probably have been a little better or a little worse, a place more or a place less, so overall it's ok," he added.
"It's still only qualifying and we need to do a good job tomorrow as well if we want to bring home some points. We'll go out and do our best and see where we end up at the flag."
Check out our Saturday gallery from Mexico City, here.