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Kimi Raikkonen had said Formula One needed more danger and excitement and his words came back to haunt him in Sunday’s Austrian Grand Prix.
Even the phlegmatic Ferrari driver had to admit, in his own unshaken and unstirred manner, that the spectacular first lap pile-up with Fernando Alonso’s McLaren was ‘not ideal’.
It could have been extremely serious, with television images showing the McLaren scraping across the Ferrari and perilously close to Raikkonen’s head and hands as the two cars hit the barriers one under the other.
Raikkonen, who had lined up 14th on the grid, suffered a lot of wheelspin and lost control while accelerating out of turn two on the opening lap.
Former Ferrari team mate Alonso, who had started on the back row after a 25-place grid drop, was in the wrong place at the wrong time and the two cars collided.
“It was a very strange incident because he lost the car in fifth gear or something like that. Obviously it was quite scary,” the Spaniard said after suffering a fourth successive retirement for the first time.
“I could not see anything because with the seat position I was looking only at the sky and then I looked in the mirror and when I stopped I saw the car under my car.”
His McLaren team mate Jenson Button said it appeared Raikkonen had ‘tried to get on the power, went one way, tried to correct and went the other way. A horrible accident’.
After this month’s Canadian Grand Prix, 2007 champion Raikkonen – a big fan of the late James Hunt who raced in a much more dangerous era – had said in a television interview that the sport needed livening up.
“We must do something to make watching F1 more exciting, to appreciate the speed and to make it a little more dangerous. It is part of the game,” he declared.
Raikkonen said he was in the dark about what had happened.
“I had some wheelspin and then suddenly went left. So that’s about it really,” he said. “I don’t know exactly why it happened or what caused it. It was at a pretty odd place.
“Racing is dangerous always and when things go wrong they usually go wrong in a bad possible way and that’s what happened here.”
Stewards heard from both drivers after the race and took no further action..
RESULTS
1. Nico Rosberg (Germany) Mercedes 1:30:16.930, 2. Lewis Hamilton (Britain) Mercedes +00:08.800, 3. Felipe Massa (Brazil) Williams-Mercedes 00:17.573, 4. Sebastian Vettel (Germany) Ferrari 00:18.181, 5. Valtteri Bottas (Finland) Williams-Mercedes 00:53.604, 6. Nico Hulkenberg (Germany) Force India - Mercedes 01:04.075, 7. Pastor Maldonado (Venezuela) Lotus - Mercedes 1 lap, 8. Max Verstappen (Netherlands) Toro Rosso - Renault 1 lap, 9. Sergio Perez (Mexico) Force India - Mercedes 1 lap, 10. Daniel Ricciardo (Australia) RedBull - Renault 1 lap, 11. Felipe Nasr (Brazil) Sauber - Ferrari 1 lap, 12. Daniil Kvyat (Russia) RedBull - Renault 1 lap, 13. Marcus Ericsson (Sweden) Sauber - Ferrari 2 laps, 14. Roberto Merhi (Spain) Marussia - Ferrari 3 laps, r. Romain Grosjean (France) Lotus - Mercedes 36 laps, r. Carlos Sainz Jr (Spain) Toro Rosso - Renault 36 laps, r. Jenson Button (Britain) McLaren 63 laps, r. Will Stevens (Britain) Marussia - Ferrari 70 laps, r. Kimi Raikkonen (Finland) Ferrari 71 laps, r. Fernando Alonso (Spain) McLaren 71 laps.
(rank: r = retired, nc = not classified)
Fastest Lap: Rosberg,1:11.235, lap 35.
Standings
Drivers
1. Hamilton 169 points, 2. Rosberg 159, 3. Vettel 120, 4. Raikkonen 72, 5. Bottas 67, 6. Massa 62, 7. Ricciardo 36, 8. Kvyat 19, 9. Hulkenberg 18, 10. Grosjean 17, 11. Nasr 16, 12. Perez 13, 13. Maldonado 12, 14. Verstappen 10, 15. Sainz Jr 9, 16. Ericsson 5, 17. Button 4, 18. Alonso 0, 19. Merhi 0, 20. Stevens 0.
Constructors
1. Mercedes 328 points, 2. Ferrari 192, 3. Williams-Mercedes 129, 4. Red Bull - Renault 55, 5. Force India - Mercedes 31, 6. Lotus - Mercedes 29, 7. Sauber - Ferrari 21, 8. Toro Rosso - Renault 19, 9. McLaren 4, 10. Marussia - Ferrari 0.
