After a crash in Parabolica during the first training session in Monza on Friday, Raikkonen reached the top 10 in the second quarter and had a second accident on the same corner in the last part of qualifying.
The team had to change the gearbox, earning him a five-place penalty, and took the opportunity to upgrade him to the latest Ferrari Spec 3 engine.
Since this decision involved a change in the specification compared to Specification 2, which he had used in qualifying, Raikkonen was relegated to the pit lane.
Alfa Romeo mistakenly believed that a pit start start forfeited the obligation for drivers starting Q2 with their fastest Q2 lap tires, and switched it from its set of used softs to a new set of media for a strategic advantage achieve.
However, the Q2 tire rule still applies to a pit start start, provided the chassis was not changed, which was not the case on this occasion.
The offense was reported to the stewards, who were obliged to impose the mandatory stop / go penalty.
Raikkonen was finally 15th.
“Well, that was a fucking weekend,” he said. “First my mistake in qualifying, which unfortunately meant that we had to change the gearbox.
“Then we decided to change the engine and start out of the pit lane, but we had the wrong tires on and the penalty meant my race was more or less over.
“I’m looking forward to Singapore because it can’t get any worse.”
Alfa Romeo boss Fred Vasseur said on Sunday evening that he did not yet know how the rules had been misinterpreted and that he had to “do a little research”.
He assisted Raikkonen in the fall in qualifying and said the tight margins in the upper midfield meant his driver had to give everything in the third quarter.
The red flag for Raikkonen’s accident sparked the rush for the late session, which ended in great controversy as drivers pulled back to keep rivals off the slip and mostly missed their final flight laps.
“Sometimes a small mistake at the beginning can cause a big mess,” Vasseur told Autosport.
“We have to keep calm. He did a great job from the start of the season.
“We know exactly whether we want to make a P6 or a P7 in qualifying, we have to take a lot of risks and we have to accept that we are taking some risks, that you can make some mistakes.”
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