Magnussen: ‘Desperate' Raikkonen didn't know what he was doing

Kevin Magnussen has ripped into Kimi Raikkonen for driving in a “desperate” manner the Haas Formula 1 driver claims ruined his French Grand Prix qualifying.

Magnussen had already seen his opening Q3 run disrupted when Haas teammate Romain Grosjean crashed, before the Dane encountered Raikkonen as he went for a final flying effort in the closing minutes of the session. 

Having successfully found a way past Raikkonen, the Ferrari driver reclaimed track position on the run to Turn 1, before ultimately aborting his own attempt. Raikkonen could only manage the sixth-quickest time, while Magnussen was unable to improve and will line-up on the grid behind Sauber’s Charles Leclerc in ninth. 

“It was very strange what he was doing, it was impossible to see what he was doing,” Magnussen explained. “One minute he was pushing and the next second he is stopping on track and then you try and overtake him and he tries to defend - [it was] impossible to predict.

“I end up trying to pass him because he’s stopping in Turn 14, I do pass him, then he slipstreams down the main straight and overtakes into Turn 1 and then obviously I couldn’t do a lap. My lap was destroyed by that. It was impossible to make a gap and it was impossible to overtake. 

“I’m upset. Because what is he doing?” Magnussen added. “He fucked all his laps, he had fuel for I don’t know how many laps, everyone else has fuel for one lap, so to begin with I thought he would box because he fucked his lap. 

“Then he tries again immediately the lap after that. Overtakes us and then backs off again - so surely he’s going to box. But then he tries again. So it’s three laps in a row that he tried to push, it makes no sense. 

“There’s no way to predict what he’s going to do. Then he obviously overtakes me into Turn 1 and fucks my lap and then doesn’t even complete his lap. I don't know, if you're that confused, just try not to get in the way of anyone else.”

The FIA stewards reviewed the incident but no further action was taken after it was deemed Raikkonen had not driven “unnecessarily slow”. The outcome did little to appease Magnussen, who believes Raikkonen’s actions were “desperate”. 

“That's erratic driving in my mind, but I don't know if it is in the stewards' mind,” he said. “You rely a lot on team information but the team had no idea what he was doing. I don’t think Kimi knew what he was doing, nobody knew. It was a mystery.

“It’s frustrating what happened. I don’t think it was necessary, he just had no idea what to do and he was desperate to get a lap. He hadn’t done a lap, he’d fucked all his laps and he was desperate.”