Raikkonen escapes penalty, moves up 3rd

Source: autosport.com

Kimi Raikkonen has escaped a potential corner-cutting penalty following Belgian Grand Prix qualifying.

The stewards were investigating whether the Lotus driver had gained an advantage by going beyond the track limits at Eau Rouge in Q3, but ruled he had not.

“Although car #9 left the track at Turns 3 and 4 (not only on this lap but also on another lap in Q3) a detailed examination of telemetry and sector times clearly indicate there was no advantage gained because the exit speed was shown to be slower than on other laps where the car did not leave the track,” said a statement from the officials.

Raikkonen was fourth-fastest in qualifying, but is set to move up to third following a blocking penalty for initial third-place man Pastor Maldonado.

Revised provisional grid:

Pos  Driver              Car
 1.  Jenson Button       McLaren-Mercedes
 2.  Kamui Kobayashi     Sauber-Ferrari
 3.  Kimi Raikkonen      Lotus-Renault
 4.  Sergio Perez        Sauber-Ferrari
 5.  Fernando Alonso     Ferrari
 6.  Pastor Maldonado    Williams-Renault
 7.  Lewis Hamilton      McLaren-Mercedes
 8.  Romain Grosjean     Lotus-Renault
 9.  Paul di Resta       Force India-Mercedes
10.  Sebastian Vettel    Red Bull-Renault
11.  Nico Hulkenberg     Force India-Mercedes
12.  Mark Webber         Red Bull-Renault
13.  Michael Schumacher  Mercedes
14.  Felipe Massa        Ferrari
15.  Jean-Eric Vergne    Toro Rosso-Ferrari
16.  Daniel Ricciardo    Toro Rosso-Ferrari
17.  Bruno Senna         Williams-Renault
18.  Heikki Kovalainen   Caterham-Renault
19.  Vitaly Petrov       Caterham-Renault
20.  Timo Glock          Marussia-Cosworth
21.  Pedro de la Rosa    HRT-Cosworth
22.  Charles Pic         Marussia-Cosworth
23.  Nico Rosberg        Mercedes
24.  Narain Karthikeyan  HRT-Cosworth