Raikkonen brushes off F1 practice fire: ‘There was nothing scary about it'

Kimi Raikkonen has downplayed his dramatic-looking fire which caused second practice for Formula 1’s season-ending Abu Dhabi Grand Prix to be red-flagged.

The teams long-runs were interrupted with just under 20 minutes of FP2 remaining on Friday at the Yas Marina Circuit as Raikkonen came to a halt when flames engulfed the back of his Alfa Romeo.

Raikkonen pulled over by a fire marshals post and clambered out of his burning car, before leaping into action by grabbing a nearby fire extinguisher to help the marshals tackle the significant blaze that had developed towards the rear of his C39.

The Finn was warned over team radio by his engineer that “you have a big fire - get the hell out of there quick” as he slowed to stop by the side of the track before swiftly extracting himself from the car, despite being briefly held up by his radio wire becoming tangled.

It came just two weeks after the scary, fiery scenes witnessed in Romain Grosjean’s huge crash in Bahrain, but Raikkonen was typically unfazed by his own incident.

Flames from the back of Kimi Raikkonen's car brought a temporary halt to FP2 #AbuDhabiGP #F1 pic.twitter.com/cY1qi7Cr6d

— Formula 1 (@F1) December 11, 2020

Asked if the experience had been scary, Raikkonen replied: “No, there was nothing scary about it.

“It was just a shame it catches on fire and then obviously it gets all messy afterwards with trying to put the fire out. It’s one of those things.”

Raikkonen did not speculate on the damage caused by the fire which continued to smoulder for some time after his stoppage, but revealed the team was already planning to change his gearbox and engine from Saturday anyway.

“I don’t speculate [on the damage],” he explained. “We will see. For sure there is some damage, hopefully it’s mainly bodywork, but we’ll see. Obviously it’s a different engine and gearbox that we run tomorrow. It’s just a bit more work for the guys.”