The same conrod issue which caused Felipe Massa’s exit from the Hungarian GP were to blame for Kimi Raikkonens exit from the European GP. Ferrari have also admitted they were aware of the problem and ran with risk rather than change the engine and have him start from the back of the grid.

“The engineers were aware of a potential risk in general terms with the 056 engine fitted to Kimi’s car, which was on its second race, given that the con rods were part of the same batch used on Felipe’s engine,” said a statement.

“Changing the engine on Kimi’s car would have seen the Finn start from far down the grid at a track where it appeared that overtaking was impossible”