Alfa Romeo could have some points coming their way after winning the right to appeal Kimi Raikkonen’s penalty at the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix.
Raikkonen saw P9 taken away from him after he had initially spun behind the Safety Car at Turn 3 in Imola as drivers prepared for a rolling race restart, but hesitation from the team meant that Raikkonen did not retake his original position before the first safety car line.
That meant that he was then required to take the restart from the pit lane, something which the Finn did not do, leading to a post-race 30-second time penalty.
Alfa Romeo had asked for clarification from the race director shortly after Raikkonen’s spin but received no response prior to the race resuming, while in issuing the penalty the stewards acknowledged the confusion of the regulations but had no choice other than to issue the mandatory penalty.
The regulations have been amended to avoid any future incidents such as Raikkonen’s but they have also deemed Alfa Romeo’s right to appeal admissible because full information on what the right course of action would be was not available at the time.
The FIA said: “Subsequent to the decision and as part of this present hearing, the Stewards have discovered that the specific cases that they referred to were not following a Red Flag.
“While this was only one element among many considered by the Stewards, this information was unavailable to the Competitor at the time of the original decision and was a part of the discussion by the Stewards and is therefore deemed significant and relevant.”
The full appeal will be heard prior to the Portuguese Grand Prix.
