 Raikkonen Penalised over Incident with Sato Saturday September 14th, 2002 Finn Kimi Raikkonen has lost his quickest time from today's qualifying after the race stewards of the Italian Grand Prix deemed the McLaren driver was to blame for an accident with Jordan driver Takuma Sato. Raikkonen and Sato crashed when the Finn moved to the right of the track while the Japanese driver, on a flying lap, was trying to overtake him right before the second chicane of the Monza circuit. Sato was unable to avoid Raikkonen and crashed heavily into the McLaren, causing heavy damage to their cars but both emerging uninjured. The stewards said they had decided to strip Raikkonen of his fastest qualifying time, a decision that moved British Jaguar driver Eddie Irvine up to an unexpected fifth place. "The Stewards of the Meeting received a report from the Race Director, stating that the Driver of car number 4 (Kimi Raikkonen) caused a collision with the driver of car number 10 (Takuma Sato) during the qualifying session," said the statement from the stewards. "Both drivers and their representatives were summoned. "Having heard the explanations of both drivers and viewed video evidence, the Stewards of the Meeting decide to impose a penalty in accordance with Article 119 of 2002 FIA Formula One Sporting Regulations to delete the fastest qualifying time of the Driver of car number 4 (Raikkonen) for causing a collision contrary to Article 53 of the aforementioned regulations."
Published at 15:23:18 GMT
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