Ricciardo, Raikkonen avoid French GP penalties
Both Daniel Ricciardo and Kimi Raikkonen have not been handed penalties following qualifying incidents at the French Grand Prix.
Ricciardo and Raikkonen were investigated for allegedly impeding another driver during Q1 at Circuit Paul Ricard, but following separate FIA hearings each driver explained their case and were found innocent of wrongdoing.
Both Daniel Ricciardo and Kimi Raikkonen have not been handed penalties following qualifying incidents at the French Grand Prix.
Ricciardo and Raikkonen were investigated for allegedly impeding another driver during Q1 at Circuit Paul Ricard, but following separate FIA hearings each driver explained their case and were found innocent of wrongdoing.
The Renault driver had been attempting to move out of the way of Raikkkonen at Turn 11, who was on a fast lap, but upon review the FIA race stewards felt it was at a part of the circuit where the issue was unavoidable and the Australian driver did not impede Raikkonen unnecessarily.
The Alfa Romeo driver, who allegedly impeded Romain Grosjean between Turns 11 and 12, “attempted to re-join the track gradually, and more or less parallel to the track” after running off to avoid Ricciardo from the earlier incident with Ricciardo and despite all parties accepting the incident lost the Haas driver a fast lap it was not due to “unnecessarily impeding” the Frenchman.
Consequently, all drivers involved retain their qualifying positions with Ricciardo starting from eighth place, Raikkonen in 12th and Grosjean a promoted 16th place following Daniil Kvyat’s grid penalty for exceeding power unit component limits.
