The Kimi fire caused by oil in the drains

12/12/2020 Italy

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Kimi Raikkonen softens the tone: for the Finnish driver there was “nothing scary” about the spectacular fire that engulfed the rear of his Alfa Romeo at the end of the second free practice session of the Abu Dhabi GP. The fact is that after Romain Grosjean was burned at the Sakhir GP, F1 saw the flames again a week later …

A failure in the Ferrari power unit mounted on Iceman’s C39 sparked flames at the rear of Hinwil’s car. Wall technicians invited Kimi to leave the car as soon as possible, informing him that a fire could be seen behind it.

Actually, the Finn did not panic and looked for the most suitable place to park his car. Then once the steering wheel was removed from the column, he wasted a few seconds trying to disconnect the radio cable as he exited the cab.

Meanwhile, the fire engulfed Alfa Romeo in flaming tongues ever higher.
“There was nothing scary – explained Kimi -. It’s a shame that the car caught fire and spoiled everything trying to put out the flames.”

The feeling is that there has been an engine failure: according to indications, after a loss of power, the crankcase cracked causing the oil to leak which ended up in the exhausts, lighting the flames.

“I don’t speculate, we’ll see …”.

“Certainly there is some damage, but I hope it is limited to the bodywork, but we will see. Obviously something happened behind me, but the engine and gearbox are not the ones we will use tomorrow. Of course I am sorry that there is more work for the guys on the team. “

Kimi closed the second session with the fourteenth fastest time: Alfa Romeo did not look bad on the fastest lap, while there is no comment on the long races as Raikkonen was unable to run a simulation with a full tank of fuel.

“It is true, the end of the session was not exciting, but the car seemed to work quite well. Unfortunately we could not run with a full tank, but you saw how it turned out …”.

Raikkonen will not have to pay any penalty on the grid because he will be able to ride a cooler engine for the Yas Marina weekend …