Raikkonen wants a pit error investigation

Kimi Raikkonen has called on his Ferrari team to investigate the pit stop blunder that cost him a strong finish in Austin last weekend.

The Finn was running in fourth spot on a three-stop strategy when the team mistakenly released him from his pit box before the right-rear wheelgun had been disengaged.

The team ordered Raikkonen to stop his car before the pit exit, not knowing whether the wheel had been secured or not. Raikkonen rolled his car back into the pits, but retired from the race.

The FIA has fined Ferrari 5,000 euro for what it deemed to be an unsafe release.

Raikkonen, who was shown the green light to leave his pit box, said: “The reasons behind why it went green, we have to investigate and understand. Hopefully in the future, [we need to] change whatever is needed for it not to happen. The green light came on so I go. So why did it come on if we were not ready? The wheel was still on when I stopped, but it wasn’t 100 per cent so we had to stop.”

The incident compounded a difficult weekend for the Scuderia, which struggled to match the pace of both Mercedes and Red Bull.

Sebastian Vettel took fourth, but said he was struggling to explain why Ferrari was lagging behind.

“We’re just not quick enough,” he said. “We don’t know exactly why. The feeling in the car wasn’t bad and we were happy with the balance. A lot of work is going in to try and understand what happened.”