Raikkonen gets gearbox penalty from third on grid

Kimi Raikkonen has been handed a penalty dropping him from third on the Japanese Grand Prix grid to eighth place as a result of an unscheduled gearbox change.

The Ferrari driver impressed in qualifying to take third place, outqualifying team-mate Sebastian Vettel who finished fourth but had a three-place grid penalty for causing a collision in Malaysia last weekend. However, Ferrari has had to change Raikkonen's gearbox ahead of the race, which carries a five-place grid penalty.

"The gearbox of car number 07, driver Kimi Räikkönen, was replaced for a new one," FIA technical delegate Jo Bauer reported.

"The gearbox has been replaced with the approval of the FIA technical delegate following a written request from the team concerned (requested on 09 October 2016 at 09:04 hours), this being in accordance with Article 34.2 of the 2016 Formula One Sporting Regulations.

"The gearbox change was before the six consecutive Events expired. Therefore this is not in compliance with Article 23.6a of the 2016 Formula One Sporting Regulations and I am referring this matter to the stewards for their consideration."

The automatic five-place grid penalty Raikkonen has been handed promotes Max Verstappen to third place ahead of Daniel Ricciardo, Sergio Perez, Vettel and Romain Grosjean.

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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.