Azerbaijan Grand Prix – Kimi Raikkonen has been disqualified from the qualifying results after his car was found to have broken the technical regulations.
The Alfa Romeo driver was due to start the 2019 Azerbaijan Grand Prix from eighth place after the team achieved a double-Q3 appearance in Saturday qualifying.
However, following the overnight scrutineering, the FIA deemed the front wing on the Alfa Romeo to be illegal after it failed the deflection tests.
Under the current regulations, Formula One car front wings must not deflect more than 5mm when a 60N load is applied to ends of the front wing.
As his front wing deflected more than the allocated amount, which is a breach of Article 3.9.8 of the Formula One Technical Regulations, and the punishment is a disqualification from qualifying.
This means that he will join Pierre Gasly in starting from the pit lane. The Red Bull driver was penalised earlier in the weekend for missing the call to the weighbridge during FP2.
As a result, every driver from ninth place onward will move up a place on the grid. Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc, who dramatically crashed out in Q2, will now start the race from eighth place, whilst McLaren’s Carlos Sainz and Renault’s Daniel Ricciardo complete the top ten.
Alfa Romeo were already dealt a blow to their Azerbaijan Grand Prix hopes when Antonio Giovinazzi was handed a ten-place grid penalty for a change of control electronics. He was due to start in eighteenth, but has now been promoted one position due to Raikkonen’s disqualification.
