Fernando Alonso says Kimi Raikkonen was lucky to escape Austrian GP shunt uninjured
Pair collided on opening lap after Finn lost control of his Ferrari
By Mike Wise and James Galloway
Last Updated: 25/06/15 9:57am
Fernando Alonso admitted that Kimi Raikkonen was lucky to escape uninjured after their crash on lap one of Sunday’s Austrian GP.
Alonso collided with Raikkonen just two corners into the race after the Ferrari driver lost control of his car on cold tyres.
Their cars then lurched left into the crash barriers, with the Spaniard’s McLaren-Honda ending up wedged against the armco and straddling the front of the Raikkonen’s car.
Alonso helped Raikkonen out of the cockpit and said afterwards that the Finn should consider himself fortunate that the outcome hadn’t been worse.
“I made a lot of places in turns one and two – I was 14th or something. Kimi was with the prime tyres and he exited turn two with a lot of wheelspin and so his car was moving,” Alonso told Sky Sports F1.
“We were all overtaking him, left and right, and at one point he lost the car to the left – and I was on the left.
“We both went in the wall and I was lucky not to hit him on the head because, looking at the replay, I was obviously braking, but my wheels were in the air.
“Luckily we’re both fine. It was a very strange incident – very low grip.”
Indeed, Ferrari team boss Maurizio Arrivabene initially thought the accident was worse than it actually was. “I thought, looking at the end of the images that Alonso was touching Kimi but apparently it was not true,” he said.
Raikkonen himself said: “Racing is always dangerous and when things go wrong they usually go wrong in a bad possible way and that’s what happened today.
“I got some wheelspin and suddenly I went left. So it was surprising really, I don’t know why it turned so aggressively left.
“It was in a pretty odd place. Sometimes you get things like that out of the corner, but it was quite a way from the exit.”
The accident capped another difficult weekend for Raikkonen, who exited Saturday’s qualifying session early and started 14th on the grid.
“It has been a pretty s*** weekend overall,” he added. “Nothing else to say.”
