BAKU, Azerbaijan -- Kimi Raikkonen has been demoted from eighth on the grid to a pit lane start at the Azerbaijan Grand Prix after his car was disqualified from Saturday's results.
Raikkonen's Alfa Romeo failed a front wing deflection test in post-qualifying scrutineering when his car's front wing flexed more than 5mm under a load of 60N. Deflection tests exist to stop teams designing body parts that bend under load in order to gain an aerodynamic advantage and the FIA rarely allows any exceptions to the rule.
Raikkonen was due to start from eighth on the grid after a promising qualifying performance but will now start from the pit lane. He will be joined by Robert Kubica, who crashed in qualifying and will start from the pits after Williams made setup changes to his car, and Pierre Gasly, who missed a call to the weighbridge in Friday practice and was penalised as a result.
Raikkonen's penalty moves every driver behind him up one place on the grid, meaning Ferrari's Charles Leclerc, who crashed in Q2, will now start from eighth position.