Fastener failure sees Raikkonen lose wheel in Austrian F1

A stewards enquiry has revealed that a cross-threaded wheel nut led to Kimi Raikkonen's car losing its front-right wheel at last weekend's Austrian Grand Prix.

Alfa Romeo were fined €5,000 for the error, which occurred during a pit stop and Raikkonen's car returned to a restarting race (following a Safety Car period).

A statement from governing body FIA said: "Having examined photos of the damaged wheel and the axle shaft, it is evident that the wheel nut of the right-hand side front wheel got cross-threaded during the wheel change, which was not identified by the wheel gun operator. As a consequence the front right wheel went off when the car was back in the race."

Fastener failures can have serious consequences, though thankfully there were no injuries caused in this case, like the case last year, when a fastener failure left the doors of a train open at 80mph speeds during rush hour.

There's more on the F1 story at Motorsport.com and Yahoo Sports.