Raikkonen dived into the pit lane to get a new set of tires when the safety car was called with 17 laps left after Williams’ George Russell stalled at the exit of Turn 4.
When Raikkonen started again at the end of the 54th lap, when the safety car returned to the pits at the end of the 54th lap, the right front wheel of Raikkonen came off as it rounded off Turn 9 and rose when exiting the curve completely off.
The Finn had to park on the main straight, which led to another safety car phase. His faulty bike stopped in the gravel at the exit of the last corner.
A post-race investigation by the FIA found that a wheel nut had a cross-thread during its pit stop, but found that the team issued a statement that it did not know it had released the car in an unsafe condition.
The FIA statement read: “The stewards heard from the team representative and checked the videos and technical evidence provided by the FIA technical delegate and the team’s car telemetry.
“After examining the photos of the damaged wheel and the axle shaft, it can be seen that the wheel nut of the RHS [right-hand side] The front wheel was provided with a cross thread during the wheel change, which was not identified by the wheel gun operator.
“As a result, the front right wheel went off when the car was back in the race.
“However, the stewards accept that neither the team nor the driver had the opportunity to see that the car was in an unsafe condition and that the car was therefore not going to stop.
“Considering these circumstances, a fine of 5000 euros is appropriate.”
Raikkonen commented on the incident, saying he had “no warning” of the problem before it happened.
Raikkonen was one of nine drivers who pulled back from a chaotic F1 opener at the Red Bull Ring.
Teammate Antonio Giovinazzi ended a bittersweet day for Alfa Romeo in ninth place and secured two championship points. He beat Sebastian Vettel’s recovering Ferrari, which suffered a spin after contact with McLaren’s Carlos Sainz Jr. at the start of the race.
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