Raikkonen mechanic has successful surgery on broken leg

Francesco Cigarini, the Ferrari mechanic who suffered a broken leg in a botched Kimi Raikkonen pitstop at the Bahrain Grand Prix, has had successful surgery. Ferrari revealed Cigarini broke his shin bone and fibula when Raikkonen drove into him wen released unsafely from his pit box.

Raikkonen's race was ended in the pits when he was released, despite his rear-left tyre going unchanged.

Cigarini was stood in front of the wheel when Raikkonen sped off and required immediate medical attention in the pit lane.

He posted an image of himself sat in his hospital bed on Monday morning, with a positive message.

Surgery ok. I have to thank all the people worried for me. Nothing else, just a big thanks. Hugs! L'operazione è andata bene. Voglio ringraziare tutte le persone che hanno chiesto di me e si sono preoccupate. Solo un grande GRAZIE. Abbracci #thanks #grazie

A post shared by Francesco Cigarini (@francesco.cigarini) on Apr 8, 2018 at 5:50pm PDT

Raikkonen was naturally upset at having his race ended, but many onlookers criticised the Finn for his apparent hesitance to check on Cigarini.

However, Raikkonen added well-wishes for the mechanic in his post-race team statement.

"What happened to our guy Francesco today at the pit-stop is very unfortunate," he said. "I feel sorry for him and hope he’s going to be OK soon.

"It’s always a bad thing when someone gets injured but I am sure he has the best people taking good care of him and I wish him a speedy recovery.

"As for the accident itself, all I know is that I moved when I saw the green light go on. I couldn’t have possibly realized that there was an issue with the rear left wheel, then I saw someone had got hurt and, immediately, I was told to stop by the team.

"Unfortunately something must have gone wrong and we’ll need to find out what."