Pierre Gasly blasts Kevin Magnussen for driving standards in Azerbaijan
The Frenchman had his second near-miss of the weekend.
It was indeed a crazy Azerbaijan Grand Prix that the TV director didn't have enough time to show an incident during the second re-start between Toro Rosso Honda's Pierre Gasly and Haas F1's Kevin Magnussen.
The Dane was in 10th ahead of Gasly when the safety car went in. On the run-up to the main straight, Gasly went on the inside of Magnussen trying to make a move. But the Haas driver moved slightly to his left to cover-up and they both touched wheels as a result.
They were unscathed. Gasly then tried to take the outside line in Turn 1 but locked-up massively which helped Magnussen to stay ahead. Eventually, both were overtaken by McLaren's Stoffel Vandoorne, Toro Rosso Honda's Brendon Hartley and Sauber's Marcus Ericsson.
Gasly finished 12th with Magnussen 13th, but post-race the Frenchman wasn't pleased at all. "Kevin is the most dangerous guy I have ever raced with," fumed Gasly. "He literally put me in the wall at 300 kph at the re-start and completely ruined the race.
"I would have been in the worst case P10 at the last restart, so this is one thing. The Safety Car came out, we pitted and were P11. I knew points were on the table. I was going to pass him just before the Safety Car line 1, went on the side, and he just put me in the wall right in the middle and took half of my floor out.
"Both my front wheels went in the air, broke my right mirror and bent my steering as well. After that I was just trying to survive until the end of the race. There was almost no point to race after that. Honestly I don't care about all this [Magnussen's defense].
"I knew exactly what he was doing, and he put me in the wall. He's been always like this. He's been always racing hard. I don't mind racing drivers which are hard, but like this is just way over the limit. You don't put someone in the wall at 300 kph."
The Dane defended himself stating that his car was vibrating massively which led to the instability and unusual movement. "I had so many vibrations in the car that the mirrors were useless, I couldn’t see anything at all," he said.
In the video posted by F1.com - the first view of the incident - it shows how the collision happened. The Dane's comments about vibrations could be seen as his mirrors were wobbling crazily on the main straight.
The FIA, however, deemed Magnussen the guilty party and handed him a 10-second time penalty along with two penalty points. He has seven to his name now, with an automatic race ban if he reaches to 12 within the one-year period.
Haas' boss Guenther Steiner came to the aide of Magnussen, who has had various complaints from other drivers as well - since the famous alteration with Renault's Nico Hulkenberg. The Italian played down Gasly's outbursts to being a rookie complaint.
For Gasly, it was his second near-miss in Azerbaijan after his coming together with teammate Hartley in qualifying. The Kiwi though took the blame for the mistake, but the Frenchman had to suffer with an early Q1 exit.
In the end, the race incident actually helped Hartley to score his first points in F1 as he finished 10th. "It was an interesting race," he said. "From my point of view I kept it clean, we didn’t really have the pace to challenge in the areas we needed to overtake.
"We just couldn’t get close enough, but it was a lot of drama around me and I managed to keep my nose clean and take home that one point. I think at times in the race, the pace was okay but on the ultrasoft in the end, I didn’t really get on with the cars in the front, but honestly I’ll take the point, first point on the board and built from there."
UPDATE: Several days after the incident, Magnussen clarified his remarks over an interview he gave prior to the race - which sparked critiscm since the quotes were mistook as it were directed towards Gasly's remarks.
[Image courtesy: F1] #F1 #Motorsport #Formula1 #PierreGasly #KevinMagnussen #FIA #HaasF1Team #ToroRosso #Honda #AzerbaijanGP #Baku #Azerbaijan
Join In
Comments (7)
And rightly so. That was shocking from Magnussen. Schumacher-esque
Yeah, agree. But Magnussen was right to say his car was vibrating - not sure how much it did actually affect him there though, but anticipation should be there.
The left hand mirror is shaking around like crazy, but I can't see how that excuses it. He's looking in his mirrors - he must be able to see Gasly. Not on at all.
Guenther Steiner defending Magnussen!
That makes 2 lying bastards.