Räikkönen Fire - very lucky man

[superkartracer]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y_f6rtPKrzQ

[Marcia]

Hope he's ok,as he said his visor was'nt fully down at the time

[spitfire4v8]

I guess it was the lollipop man getting the roasting later on ..

[dpbird90]

Agreed, lucky Kimi. Perhaps Kovalainen was mad that Kimi will replace him though?

[superkartracer]

Little closer and the fuel might have entered his helmet and blinded him, he clearly panics for a moment.

[scubadude]

Lollipop man clearly lifted too soon- lucky no one at Mclaren badly hurt and Kimi seems to be unscathed.

Credit to Brawn engineers for stepping in, surprised FIA didn't fine them (its about all the excuse they need!) thought that was very sporting.

[Alex97]

The fuel hose wasn't even close to being removed, very strange. I can understand the lollipop guy letting the car go by accident if the hose is yanked and sticks or there is movement by the hose giving the impression it's been removed, but in this instance there is no movement from the hose and it is clearly still attached.

[FNG]

Kimi said:

At the pitstop, I ended up with some drops of petrol in my eye, from the fuel line stuck on Kovalainen's car and then I was engulfed in flames and blinded: I was going to stop, but luckily the flames soon went out.

Even now, my eyes are still burning, but I'm alright.

From http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/79594

So I dunno whether the petrol in his eye ignited - you'd assume it'd be worse if it had - but nevertheless understandable that his immediate reaction was to stop and get the hell out of it.

I've had petrol in my eye and the pain (and sense of panic) was indescribable at the time, then it was red-raw and weeping for hours with little vision out of it, and feckin sore for at least a couple of days after. I can't imagine carrying on with a race TBH, which just shows how much of a wuss I am compared to an F1 driver

[mchammer89]

McLaren should get a right bking for that, people are going on about how dangerous Kobayashi was but that could've had much more serious consequences, and it's not like he can play the rookie card either.

[lozriva]

He would seem fine, i bet that sucked the breathe out of him though, scary st! that is super hi octane stuff...

[jamieboy]

mchammer89 said:

McLaren should get a right bking for that, people are going on about how dangerous Kobayashi was but that could've had much more serious consequences, and it's not like he can play the rookie card either.

There was an awful lot of noise on here about the Ferrari traffic-light system, when more-or-less the same thing happened with Massa in Singapore.

[mchammer89]

jamieboy said:

mchammer89 said:

McLaren should get a right bking for that, people are going on about how dangerous Kobayashi was but that could've had much more serious consequences, and it's not like he can play the rookie card either.

There was an awful lot of noise on here about the Ferrari traffic-light system, when more-or-less the same thing happened with Massa in Singapore.

Definitely, i'm a Massa fan and I was saying the exact same thing when that was happening, out on the racetrack, the cars are designed to take the impact, drivers are usually fine after horrible accidents (Kovi at Barcelona, Kubica at Montreal for example) but you can't be that careless in the pitlane, anybody who causes a silly accident like that should be harshly punished to make sure they don't do it again.

[FNG]

jamieboy said:

mchammer89 said:

McLaren should get a right bking for that, people are going on about how dangerous Kobayashi was but that could've had much more serious consequences, and it's not like he can play the rookie card either.

There was an awful lot of noise on here about the Ferrari traffic-light system, when more-or-less the same thing happened with Massa in Singapore.

Yes there was, and Ferrari abandoned the traffic light system after their investigation into the incident.

McLaren are going to thoroughly investigate this early release too, but I don't see them abandoning the lollipop

[plg101]

lozriva said:

He would seem fine, i bet that sucked the breathe out of him though, scary st! that is super hi octane stuff...

Nope, it's a fairly standard (95-100) octane... the ratios in the fuel are different to pump fuel, but it's not so different.

[Get Karter]

I think it is unfair to penalise the driver....he was already penalised by having to stop and ask Brawn for a hand.

Solely the fault of the lollipop guy. How hard can it be to make sure the 5 jobs are complete before raising the pole!!??

[Project 644]

They might abandon the lollipop operator though....

[clonmult]

mchammer89 said:

McLaren should get a right bking for that, people are going on about how dangerous Kobayashi was but that could've had much more serious consequences, and it's not like he can play the rookie card either.

50k fine apparently.

Not sure thats a right bking though.

[Wanta996Gotta]

What fine was given to Ferrari for the similar pitlane incident at Singapore?

I cant remember.

[FNG]

Project 644 said:

They might abandon the lollipop operator though....

Only one more race left and then no more refuelling.

I'm assuming here that a lollipop operator would never release a car when it only had 3 wheels and was still on the jacks!

[Munter]

Get Karter said:

I think it is unfair to penalise the driver....he was already penalised by having to stop and ask Brawn for a hand.

Solely the fault of the lollipop guy. How hard can it be to make sure the 5 jobs are complete before raising the pole!!??

I thin the answer to that is very. Because you want to be fast so you're on a "hair trigger", plus you're watching down the pit lane for other cars. One of the most stressful jobs there I would think.

Which is not an excuse for getting it wrong. I just don't think it's easy.