Alonso suggests stewards let Magnussen off the hook 

Fernando Alonso believes Formula 1’s stewards purposely avoided penalising Kevin Magnussen for their squabble during British Grand Prix opening practice at Silverstone. 

The McLaren and Haas drivers locked horns during FP1 as the pair ran side-by-side through the first sequence of corners, before Magnussen appeared to squeeze Alonso on the run to Brooklands and later passed him back at Copse. 

Magnussen’s driving prompted Alonso to open his team radio and claim the Dane had "tried to hit me” on three occasions in the first sector. Both drivers were summoned to the Silverstone stewards but no further action was taken.

Alonso reckons the decision was partly swayed by the fact Magnussen is two driving reprimands away from being hit with a race-ban. 

In the first situation I’m not really a part of it, it’s just him that in three occasions tries to force whatever he wanted to do, but the Stewards decided his actions didn’t warrant a penalty. 

“I presume the fact he already has two reprimands would mean he would get a penalty, a bit like when in football someone already has a yellow card and he gets forgiven for some actions,” Alonso said. “That’s how it is in Formula 1, as we know.”

Magnussen believes the incident occurred because Alonso was not informed by McLaren about his run-plan. 

“It’s another case that he had been told something that wasn’t right on the radio. So he didn’t know I was on a push lap,” Magnussen explained.

Alonso also scrapped with Sauber driver Charles Leclerc as the duo swapped positions with each other during second practice. But the Spaniard said the two incidents were completely different, adding Leclerc is always “calm” when battling over track position. 

“What happened with Magnussen in FP1 and with Leclerc in FP2 is completely different,” he added. "In FP2 I had a bit of a battle with Leclerc, because you want to know how things will happen in the race as the car handles quite differently when you are in traffic. 

“We wanted to see what are our limitations in traffic and with Charles it’s always a calm battle, and because it’s a very talented driver you try to enjoy the moment.”

Alonso only managed the 15th-quickest time in FP1 but recovered to finish FP2 sixth-fastest. The double world champion is anticipating a “fierce” battle between F1’s ever-tightening midfield come qualifying on Saturday. 

“The cars haven’t changed much during this triple-header so I don’t expect the rankings to change too much here,” he said. “I think tomorrow the battle in the midfield will be fierce. 

"Probably the Haas will be ahead of the rest of us, and then Renault should be right behind, with Sauber close by. But let’s hope the track will be a bit more suited to us than the previous two and we get closer to Q3 than in France and Austria.”