May 25 (GMM) Two champions left Monaco on Sunday admitting their displeasure with the FIA stewards.
McLaren’s Fernando Alonso said he was unhappy for being given a five-second timed penalty for his collision with Nico Hulkenberg.
The clash ended Hulkenberg’s race, but the Force India driver said: “For me, it’s racing.
“That’s just first-lap fighting, especially in Monaco.”
Indeed, Alonso also told Spanish reporters the penalty, taken by the FIA stewards including Le Mans legend Tom Kristensen, was “stupid”.
“We know in Monaco it (crashes) can sometimes happen but what we see (from the stewards) can be random.
“For sure it was a very strange penalty.”
Also clashing on Sunday was Daniel Ricciardo, who admitted Kimi Raikkonen was “very polite” to have denounced the crash on the radio as merely “not very nice”.
“I think they’ve edited that or something,” grinned the Australian.
“I saw there was half a gap, and I think the stewards understand that Monaco is a bit like that — to make a move sometimes you have to have a bit of contact.”
Indeed, while Raikkonen was frustrated with the Red Bull driver, he was arguably more unhappy that the stewards were not consistent, having penalised Alonso but not Ricciardo.
“The rules keep changing,” the Ferrari driver is quoted by La Gazzetta dello Sport, “depending on what’s going on and who does what.
“Sometimes there is a penalty, other times there is not, so it’s not very clear what you can and cannot do,” Raikkonen added.