Confirmed: Kimi Raikkonen pulls leg muscle ahead of Belgium Grand Prix weekend
Kimi Raikkonen has pulled a leg muscle ahead of the Belgium Grand Prix but will drive the Alfa Romeo during practice on Friday. Marcus Ericsson is at Spa-Francorchamps ready to replace Raikkonen should he be unable to continue after practice.
According to the BBC's Andrew Benson, Raikkonen believes he'll be "fine" but it's "better to have a back-up" just in case. The Ice Man has scored all but one of Alfa Romeo's 32 points during the 2019 F1 season.
With the team themselves tweeting this morning that Ericsson had arrived, initial rumours suggested that Antonio Giovinazzi was going to be replaced, but those rumours have no died out.
The Ericsson mystery resolved - Raikkonen has pulled a muscle in his left leg and was not completely sure he could race. “Better to have a back-up,” he says. “But it should be fine.” Says he’ll find out tomorrow in practice but was very clear he didn’t think it was “a big story”
— Andrew Benson (@andrewbensonf1) August 29, 2019