Kimi Raikkonen blew a great podium chance in the Italian Grand Prix, the home race of Ferrari, when he blundered at the start and had to fight his way through the field from last place to fifth - but a big opportunity to shine was lost.
Starting on the front-row for Ferrari for the first time since 2009, Raikkonen fumbled when his Ferrari inexplicably went into anti-stall. He was swamped by the rest of the pack, many lucky to avoid the stationary car on the front row of the Monza grid.
The veteran of 224 grand prix starts explained to media afterwards,"It went into anti-stall when I let the first clutch go and as far as I understood I did the correct things."
"But we can see a problem in the second clutch and it was not in the correct place, even though I'm pretty sure I put everything correct as always. I don't know exactly, but whatever it was it triggered the anti-stall and after a few seconds I was in last place."
Since the resumption of the season at Spa last month, drivers are now without assistance or communication at the start of races form the pitwall in the pit garages,
Raikkonen reflected when asked what transpired, "On the data it's slightly in the correct place, but from what I do always I did the same thing, so I cannot explain why.
"There are only a few small chances why it could be, but whatever the reason is we understand it correctly, 100%, and make sure that if we have to make changes we do the right things."
"The race was okay to finish fifth but when you start in second place and end up in last place in the first corner it's not ideal," he said at the end of an afternoon of hard graft where he went toe-to-toe with just about everyone in the field.
"So that's a bit disappointing but we have to learn about that and hopefully get better results," lamented Raikkonen.
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