Kimi Raikkonen believes accidents at race starts are unavoidable – Formula 1 news
Lotus driver Kimi Raikkonen believes that the accidents which happen during the starts of the races are unavoidable because the drivers intend to improve their positions by taking risk.
Raikkonen’s teammate, Romain Grosjean drifted into McLaren driver Lewis Hamilton during the first lap in the Belgian Grand Prix. As a result, both of them went out of control while Hamilton took off at the backside of Sergio Perez of Sauber and the Frenchman
hit Fernando Alonso of Ferrari which eventually caused the retirement of all the four drivers.
Later on, Grosjean apologised for his mistake and was banned to take part in the Italian GP by the race stewards. Meanwhile, the Finnish driver said that such incidents are very hard to avoid as the drivers always take risk at the start to gain positions.
“I think people try to improve their position at the start because it's the easiest - and maybe most risky - place to overtake people,” said Raikkonen. “But unfortunately in the race it's often quite difficult to get past. If you can gain a place at the
start then you probably make your race easier.”
In addition, he said that accidents are the part and parcel of the game which can be minimised but cannot be evaded entirely.
“Accidents happen and it's part of the sport, sometimes they can be avoided but there's nothing you can really change. Things can go wrong even if you don't go aggressively or try to avoid it,” he said.
It will be important to mention that Lotus third driver, Jerome d’Ambrosio will be racing at Autodromo di Monza in place of Grosjean. Besides, the Finn has refused to make any kind of projections about his new teammate and said that as he has never seen
his drive, therefore, he can’t comment regarding his performance in the race ahead.
“I've never seen him driving or racing,” he added.
Additionally, he said that there is a tough weekend ahead for the Belgian driver. Nonetheless, he expressed that he is hopeful that d’Ambrosio will come up to their expectations and will attain good result in the forthcoming race.
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