Categories: F1 News, Reports and Race ResultsFerrari

Bottas move wasn't completely stupid - Raikkonen

Kimi Raikkonen says his attempt to overtake Valtteri Bottas was not "completely stupid" despite taking out the Williams driver on the final lap in Russia.

With Bottas running in third place, Raikkonen attacked from a long way back in to Turn 4 on the final lap, hitting the rear of Bottas' car and sending the Williams in to the barrier. Bottas criticised his fellow Finn for the collision after the race, saying: "I don't really get the point to do moves like that on the last lap".

Raikkonen, however, believes Bottas simply didn't see he was attempting to pass and insists it was not a reckless move.

"I went to the inside but I don’t think he realised I was there," Raikkonen said. "Obviously, at the last point, I knew he was turning in so I tried to avoid him on the inside and had to brake hard, but I was passed him already and there was contact.

"I don’t think it was something completely stupid that I tried. We made a call and it was only two cars, but there are many ways of looking at the incident. I was there, but did he know that I was there? The fortunate thing is that it wasn’t a bad accident but it is part of racing and it happened.”

Raikkonen was hit with a 30-second time penalty after the race, which dropped him from fifth place at the chequered flag to eighth and handed Mercedes the constructors' championship.

Raikkonen penalty hands Mercedes constructors' title

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AS IT HAPPENED: Russian Grand Prix

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Andrew Lewin

Andrew first became a fan of Formula 1 during the time when Michael Schumacher and Damon Hill were stepping into the limelight after the era of Alain Prost, Nigel Mansell and Aryton Senna. He's been addicted ever since, and has been writing about the sport now for nearly a quarter of a century for a number of online news sites. He's also written professionally about GP2 (now Formula 2), GP3, IndyCar, World Rally Championship, MotoGP and NASCAR. In his other professional life, Andrew is a freelance writer, social media consultant, web developer/programmer, and digital specialist in the fields of accessibility, usability, IA, online communities and public sector procurement. He worked for many years in magazine production at Bauer Media, and for over a decade he was part of the digital media team at the UK government's communications department. Born and raised in Essex, Andrew currently lives and works in south-west London.