Kimi Raikkonen appeared somewhat bemused by what he described as a "pointless" penalty for failing to slow for double waved yellow flags during the Belgian Grand Prix.

The incident came as marshals were in the process of clearing Max Verstappen's Red Bull from the side of the track along the Kemmel Straight, as the Dutchman suffered his sixth retirement of the season.

The Finn was seen not to lift off the throttle as he sped through the zone where drivers are expected to slow down and be prepared to stop in some circumstances, but he defended his case claiming the recovery had been all but completed as he approached. 

"I knew there was a yellow flag but the car was at least halfway behind the barrier on the straight," he said. "I didn't go faster but I didn't lift on the straight. In my view, it was pointless to get penalised for that.

"I completely understand if he was by the side of the circuit, on the proper side and there is people working on it but this is what happened and I would be surprised if everybody else lifted."

The Ferrari driver, who was re-signed for 2018 last week, was subsequently given a 10-second stop and go penalty, which would drop Raikkonen from fourth to seventh, however, he would be able to recover passing several cars and using the Safety Car to regain P4, passing the Mercedes of Valtteri Bottas at Les Combes.

"On the restart, I got a really good tow from two cars and then Ricciardo was on one side, Bottas was in the middle and I just had just enough speed to get next to Bottas, I managed to go on the inside," the 2007 world champion said talking through the overtake.

"I got one car. After that, I never really had the speed advantage over the Red Bull. They were surprisingly strong in race conditions compared to what they have been the whole weekend.

"They had good speed in the right places always and good lap times but at least I got one place back."