Alfa Romeo fails to overturn Raikkonen's Imola penalty

Stewards had accepted a team request for a review at the Portuguese Grand Prix based on the emergence of new elements, but later issued a statement upholding the original sanction.

Kimi Raikkonen of Alfa Romeo Racing climbs out of his car after stopping in the gravel during the F1 Grand Prix of Portugal.

The Alfa Romeo Formula One team failed on Sunday to overturn a penalty that cost Kimi Raikkonen points at last month's Emilia Romagna Grand Prix.

Stewards had accepted a team request for a review at the Portuguese Grand Prix based on the emergence of new elements, but later issued a statement upholding the original sanction.

"We tried but now they say no, so we acknowledge and go on," Alfa's head of track engineering Xevi Pujolar told reporters in a video call.

Raikkonen was handed a 30-second penalty at Italy's Imola circuit after the race was halted by a crash between Mercedes' Valtteri Bottas and Williams' George Russell and then given a rolling restart.

 

Stewards had ruled the Finn should have gone to the pit lane after a spin when the safety car was leading the field before the re-start, rather than remaining on track.

Alfa Romeo said the team had asked for guidance since the situation was unclear, but the answer came back too late for them to act on it.

Stewards recognised there was no Formula One precedent for the situation Raikkonen found himself in, and that a 2018 rule change introduced a 'conflict of intent' between the rules for a rolling re-start and that behind the safety car.

 

They added, however, that the penalty triggered by the breach was a mandatory one and stewards had no discretion to change it.

The penalty demoted Raikkonen from ninth to 13th and promoted Alpine's Esteban Ocon and Fernando Alonso to ninth and 10th respectively.