No penalty after Raikkonen/Sainz near-miss

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Kimi Raikkonen and Carlos Sainz have escaped penalty for an incident during the early part of FP2 at the Brazilian Grand Prix.

Ten minutes into the session, Raikkonen was seen overtaking Sainz around the outside on the high-speed run to the finish line before cutting across in front of the Toro Rosso to enter the pit lane.

With the two cars coming close to contact, the stewards investigated whether the incident required punishment under Article 27.5 of the Sporting Regulations, which states: "At no time may a car be driven unnecessarily slowly, erratically or in a manner which could be deemed potentially dangerous to other drivers or any other person."

However, following an investigation the stewards decided to take no further action against Raikkonen for the manoeuvre.

"Having reviewed the video footage, telemetry, radio broadcasts by the teams and having spoken to the teams and drivers involved, the Stewards determined that no further action was necessary," the stewards decision read.

"On the lap concerned both drivers had aborted their lap at about Turn 9. Following the abort, both drivers agreed that they were setting up for what they were doing next, not quite understanding what the other was doing. On the uphill prior to the pit entry, Sainz’s car was initially at a similar speed to Raikkonen, then having entered harvesting mode, did not accelerate at the same rate as Raikkonen.

"Raikkonen then had to go around Sainz to enter the pits, and because of his greater speed he was able to do so safely. He did enter the pit lane prior to the beginning of the white pit entry line. Both drivers agreed that the did not have to take any avoiding action. The Stewards are satisfied that neither driver drove unnecessarily slowly, erratically or potentially dangerously."

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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.