Kimi Raikkonen had an eventful race at the 2014 Monaco Grand Prix on Monday.
The Finnish Formula One star was running in third place until he was hit by British driver Max Chilton during the second safety car period.
The safety car had just cleared German Adrian Sutil’s crashed car at the Nouvelle Chicane.
When lapped cars were allowed to repass after the clean up, Chilton hit Raikkonen, forcing the Finnish driver to make a pit stop for repairs.
“This was a very unlucky day for me, a real shame after getting a good start and managing to move up to third place. The car was handling well and had a good pace,” Raikkonen stated on his website.
“Unfortunately, in a Safety Car period, my car was hit by Chilton’s Marussia and I had to make an unscheduled stop as my right rear [tire] was damaged and that meant the end of any chance of getting a good result.”
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— NBC Sports Network (@NBCSN) May 24, 2014
The incident left Raikkonen chasing Danish driver Kevin Magnussen for seventh place toward the end of the race.
The two clashed at Loews with six laps to go when Raikkonen tried to outbrake Magnussen in what some viewed as a “very aggressive” move.
“I tried to overtake on the inside [curb] and couldn’t make the corner,” Raikkonen said.
” … I didn’t see what happened with Kimi – I went to the inside to try to block his entry into the hairpin, but he chose to make a move anyway. It’s hard to overtake here, but he tried and it didn’t work. That’s racing,” Magnussen observed.
In the end, Magnussen took 10th place, Raikkonen 12th, and Chilton 14th.
Such a great buzz in Monaco all weekend, great to see so many fans out from the UK.
Bed time now
pic.twitter.com/7jVeBtSReW
— Max Chilton (@maxchilton) May 24, 2014
Chilton and Raikkonen were both reprimanded by race stewards, but Raikkonen took issue with the level of attention given his clash with Magnussen and the fact that he’d missed the pre-race drivers’ parade versus the incident with Chilton.
“Nobody talked about the safety car thing until I asked … Obviously that was the thing that destroyed the race, but clearly they were not very interested,” Raikkonen said. “They asked why I missed the drivers’ parade, but that was because I did not feel very good. So they make a big story about that, but not the main things.”
Image via YouTube
