Magnussen slams F1 Stewards for penalty call
Kevin Magnussen has described the five-second time penalty he received during the Russian Grand Prix as “bullshit” and “stupid” but used his anger to fuel his late charge to stay in the points for Haas.
The Danish driver was given a five-second time penalty for going off track at Turn 2, having been fighting for position with Sergio Perez at the time, and was judged by the FIA Stewards to have gained an unfair advantage during the race.
Kevin Magnussen has described the five-second time penalty he received during the Russian Grand Prix as “bullshit” and “stupid” but used his anger to fuel his late charge to stay in the points for Haas.
The Danish driver was given a five-second time penalty for going off track at Turn 2, having been fighting for position with Sergio Perez at the time, and was judged by the FIA Stewards to have gained an unfair advantage during the race.
The penalty duly dropped Magnussen from eighth place to ninth place in the final results behind Lando Norris but clung on to a points position by just over two seconds from Racing Point’s Lance Stroll in 11th place.
Magnussen is adamant he did not gain an advantage going off track and gave a critical response to the penalty from the Stewards.
“I think I was hard done by today, no doubt about it. This is bullshit,” Magnussen said. “We have this Turn 2 which is a crap corner, it’s just stupid, just put gravel there or something.
“I’m not a safety expert and never will be, but I think the way it happened today was I missed that corner, went through a load of crap offline on the run off, lost a hell of a lot of time, and got penalised by my own fault.
“The FIA didn’t have to do anything. it wasn’t black and white, and yet they choose to give me a penalty.”
After being informed about the penalty by his Haas race engineer, Magussen says he gave his all to stay inside the points in the closing stages.
“I just had six of my best laps this weekend in a row,” he said. “I got told I had that penalty, they said we need everything for you now, they gave me maximum engine power, used way more than we should have.
“They timed it perfectly so I could use all my energy and on top of that I had to do six qualifying laps and I absolutely nailed all of them. I obviously had the car to do it as well, everything was perfect for that scenario.”
The FIA Stewards explanation for the penalty states Magnussen incorrectly went through the bollards after going off the track at Turn 2.
“The Stewards reviewed video evidence and the driver of car 20 left the track at Turn 2 and did not pass to the left of both bollards as per the instructions in the Race Director’s event notes,” an FIA statement confirmed.
Magnussen has also been given one penalty point which increases his total to four over the past 12 months.
