Kimi Raikkonen was far from pleased with his Alfa Romeo team after a tyre mix-up ruined his race at the Italian Grand Prix.
Starting from the pit-lane, the Swiss team fitted a different set of tyres from that he used in Q3 which breached the regulation and resulted in a 10-second stop/go penalty.
After that, it was another lowly race for Raikkonen, as he finished 15th, behind the Williams of George Russell.
“I can’t explain the penalty, I don’t know the rules,” he admitted post-race. “Somebody f**ked up somewhere but it just happened. Plus that f**king set [of tyres] was completely useless.”
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The result capped off a miserable race for Raikkonen, who crashed at the Parabolica twice, with his second off in qualifying creating the whole tyre confusion.
“It was a s**t weekend, really. There was my mistake yesterday, and then today, for some reason, we had the wrong tyres, I don’t know why,” he continued.
“I think if I hadn’t done the mistake yesterday and if there hadn’t been that mistake over the tyres today, for sure we would have finished much higher.”
There was a least some home delight for Alfa Romeo as their Italian driver Antonio Giovinazzi scored his second F1 points finish in ninth at Monza.
“It was a positive day for Italy today,” he declared. “I want to dedicate the two points to all the Tifosi here because I had their full support, from already on Wednesday in Milan until today.
“A lot of my friends are here, my family was is here, just a great weekend.
“Starting on softs and changing to mediums turned out to be the best strategy, but I had to do my best to keep the McLaren of Norris behind.
“It was a difficult race, but a lot of our work has been rewarded, especially after Spa.”
As for whether the result will help his chances of staying in F1 next season, Giovinazzi set himself a goal.
“I don’t want to focus too much [on 2020],” he said.
“If I’m doing well, nobody can take my seat. What happened in Spa, until the last lap I was P9, now again P9, we need to just be in the points in every race.
“Singapore will be a completely different track, with high downforce, street track, so we need to see how the car will perform there. But I’m sure we can also have a good result there.”
