Yep, Sutil would be last all the time.

some guys take kimi's drinking habit and the ice-cream thingie way too seriously. i mean , come on, the incident could have turned quite nasty ...

It could have been worse I guess, but once that splash of fuel ignited then there was not much else to burn... I would have been more nervous with the KERS batteries going fubar, being strapped in the car like that other incident with Kimi.

Heikki was trying to thaw the iceman.

Seriously though, glad nobody got seriously hurt. Personally I will be glad to see the back of in race fuel stops. They are an absolute menace.

BTW the man who let Heiki going will be with Kimi's team next year. That's scary a bit.

Refueling the car is going to be alot less stressful of a job next year though..

Even better, I think he won't be with the team McLaren bring anymore next year. How many people do they bring for fueling only?

Yep but what if it would be Like Alonso in Hungary (or Mika in 1999 don't remember exactly GP when wheel was dropped after pit).

Domenicali:

At the moment we were worry about his healthy. Luckily the visor was down. He said immediately after the incidend on radio that his eyes are burning. We said to him that if you feel you cannot drive its ok and come to pit.


There is video under this page:

http://www.mtv3.fi/urheilu/f1/uutiset.shtm.../2009/10/978008

How can he get it in his eyes when he had the visor down?
And I can't see the video.

The videos from MTV3 most likely won't work for people outside Finland.





It did look pretty bad, but fortunately the car or Kimi didn't catch fire. It did look for a split-second that Kimi is going to drive towards the pit crews on the left. Fortunately again, he regained control of the situation quickly and corrected the steering.


I don't quite understand why Kovalainen was penalised, but I guess you could say he should know whether the fuel hose is still attached to the car or not before taking off. The way the drivers have been trained to do the job probably doesn't require them to take that responsibility - perhaps the teams could revise the instruction they give to their drivers? As in, when the lollipop is raised, the driver checks from the mirror whether the hose has been pulled out. I imagine they are able to see it approximately what is going on with the fuel hose, if they have a look in the mirror. I don't know... maybe some driver could elaborate on this.

The helmet has ventilation..
Motorcycle riders knows this clearly, if you are behind a car that uses it´s windscreen
flushes it´s really annoying. And that´s only water a some alcohol in it...

Well, just goes to show that Kimi really has been on fire the last few races.

I mean, the Iceman rules!

And the guy still managed to finish in 6th place and ahead of Kovalainen, with a much, much better car, not to mention Fisichela, wich doesn't count.

Slartibartfast's Better Driving Tips #23:

Try setting your passenger-side windscreen washer jet just a little too far over to the side, so that it barely skims the glass. Make sure you keep the reservoir well topped-up so the water jet has plenty of pressure.
Then, next time you are waiting at a pedestrian crossing or red light and an annoying cyclist comes up on your inside, obviously with no intention of stopping...

Well teams as far as I know normally only have one pit crew, the same crew services both cars during the race.

New Ferrari signing Ecto Plasm...

Nope. Every pilot has it's own mechanics team.

He'd sure go so much faster than Fisi is! But how can they weigh him ? he'd be under weight lol..

Kimi may be crazy, but he is a f.ucking badass. End of story.
With fuel in my eyes I would have panicked and stopped and maybe cried a little too.

Ha, I probably would've mowed down a pitcrew or two before doing the same. Just one of the approximately 639 reasons I'm not a race car driver.

Nope. They have their own mechanics, but the pit stop crew is the same for both cars.

It reminded of

Probably you are right. I was misguided by MS comments about trainings his pit stop mechanics and some stories when pilots gives mechanics money bonus from own pocket.

agreed, a scary moment. You can the mechanics in pit lane start to scatter and then calm a little as Kimi regains control (and vision!)

Another reason for banning refuelling. I'm glad he was ok, as it had the potential to be a bad incident.

If Kimi goes back to McLaren the title will be very true

I was a bit impressed with the Brawn mechanics, who were pretty fast with their fire extinguishers. I don't give extra points for removing the hose though, since that was self-preservation - they didn't want Heikki blocking their pit box. That's also what Massa should have done in Singapore last year, just stop the car in another box, they have to fix it.

How considerate and magnanimous of the Ferrari pit wall team! The implication being that McLaren would have told their driver to use the force and keep pushing, regardless of such trivialities as ability to see.

Lol that is a good one! Bonuspoint for you

Back to the McLaren.

And there I was thinking he was giving account of what happend. I should learn to read between the lines, and when the lines don't exist, I should make them up...

err i guess a bit off topic but not really...
why did brawn mechanics pulled (is that correct word?) out the fuel hose? and not wait for mcLaren guys to run down the pitlane and pull it off, like ferrari in singapore 08?

and if that was correct, then can someone just quickly reply which team had the last garage at singapore 08?

Well Heikki stopped right next to the BrawnGP garage, Massa stopped 100' further down the road, as the Singapore exit is different.
Also everyone loves Heikki.

"That the situation proved once again how cool Kimi will be able to take that kind of situation and to leave it the same way back. For most drivers do petrol jet would have been such a shock that the prosecutions would have been kept in." Robertson said.

http://www.ts.fi/f1/uutiset/82427.html

Erm, is that a translation by Google?

This is why I LOVE that guy

Awesome determination, just awesome, he and Gilles two of a kind

Is WADA informed?

yep. Everyone loves Heikki

I'll try to do a better translation:

"That situation proved once again how coolly Kimi can take such a situation and leave it behind him right away. For most drivers a shower of gasoline would have been such a shock they would have stopped driving."

It was said by Steve Robertson.

Especially his team mates!

Heikki sux, he is a disgrace, I call him Heikki Kimilainen, because even that FPA driveress is better than him

Some quotes on Kimi. Courtesy of Saima

Manager Steve Robertson: "Kimi was lucky in that situation. When the car was moving he felt the gas hitting his eyes. Kimi drove left and was about to jump out of the car when he realised that the flames died and continued driving.
That situation proved once again how Kimi can take a situation like that in a cool way and immediately leave it behind him. For most drivers those flames would have been such a big shock that they would not have continued the race."

F1Badger - It's A Good Job He's The Iceman: "It’s a bit of an understatement to say fire’s a bit bad, but in the relatively confined enclosure of a Formula One pit lane, it can be quite disastrously lethal. However yesterday, it was fire that learnt not to play with Kimi Raikkonen.
With the apt pseudonym of Iceman, Kimi’s Ferrari breezed through the flames with alarming grace, causing many to wonder whether the ridiculously unflappable Finn was truly from another planet."

Vee8 - "Massive, massive kudos to Kimi Räikkönen for driving through the fire which resulted from Kovalainen’s premature pit box exit. The fuel was more or less being sprayed into his face, and flames briefly exploded all around him. Yet he kept his foot down and kept driving.
After the race, he said his eyes were still burning! Yet he plodded on. As far as I’m concerned he could have been blinded by that sort of thing. He must have huge balls. And people say he doesn’t have motivation."

Times Online - "[...] This was a day that reminded us of the risks, the dangers, the dash of lunacy required to go wheel to wheel at 200mph. Take Kimi Raikkonen who was struck on the first lap, lost a wing, came in for repairs and was splattered with fuel when Heikki Kovalainen pulled away with the hose still attached. The next thing Raikkonen knew he was on fire.
“I ended up with some drops of petrol in my eye and then I was engulfed in flames and blinded,” Raikkonen said. He did, of course, just carry on. No wonder Damon Hill once said that a driver had to be “bonkers” to win a world championship [...]"

this is 1 of the reasons i think he is v cool.petrol in eye plus the fire =foot down

they dont say he´s a iceman for nothing Massive kudos to Kimi

Thanks to Nicole for the translation

Kimi don´t bother. Payback is a bitch, just park the car on the last lap

As much as I'd love to see KR give it his all for the last time in that Ferrari, I do hope he gives a pathetic performance. Should Ferrari get 3rd in constructors-I don't want it given to them by KR-even if they did pay him funny money

thats exactly what I thought

I would do the same. Perfect scenario I lead all the race comfortabla and than I park two meters before s/f line and walk away lookin at the rodents climbing over the wall and pushing my vehicle for that remaining 2 meters, only to be DQ later- perfect payback

understandable, human also. but Kimi's got way too much class to do such a thing.

It would be nice if he showed up drunk...and in a moment of drunkeness, let out all the SF secrets.