FORUMLA ONE legend Martin Brundle has laid into Kevin Magnussen for his ‘silly’ and ‘unnecessary’ antics at the Miami Grand Prix.
The Sky Sports icon claimed that Magnussen’s crash with Logan Sargeant showed poor judgement in attempting an unorthodox overtake.
Magnussen is potentially one more incident away from a F1 race ban after a series of controversial moves on track during the Miami GP weekend.
Race stewards imposed five penalty points on the Haas driver’s Super Licence during the course of the event in Florida – doubling his existing total to 10.
Drivers face an automatic one-race suspension if they accrue 12 penalty points across a rolling 12-month period.
Magnussen left the track four times in the 19-lap Sprint race while defending against Lewis Hamilton, before crashing into Sergeant to bring out a Safety Car on Sunday.
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Fighting the Williams driver for position, Magnussen made an opportunistic move at the exit of Turn 2 and punted Sargeant into the barrier and out of the race.
And racing legend Brundle believes that the final incident was the last straw.
Brundle wrote in his Sky Sports column: “Magnussen must have been exasperated with the number of times he was in the steward’s office after each of the two races.
“He put up a supremely aggressive defence against Hamilton in the Sprint, sometimes over the limit but nevertheless applauded even by Hamilton.
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“But in the race, Magnussen’s crash with Sargeant was just silly and unnecessary.
“And created yet another pile of broken parts for the Williams team which is having rather a nightmare start to 2024.”
How Magnussen’s Miami weekend played out
The Dane picked up two time penalties and three penalty points for his antics in defending Hamilton in Saturday’s sprint.
In Sunday’s race, he was hit with a 10-second time penalty and TWO super licence points for crashing into Sargeant to bring out the Safety Car at lap 29.
The timely Safety Car saw McLaren driver Lando Norris emerge as the race leader after a time-saving pit stop.
Norris held off Max Verstappen at the restart before creating a considerable gap to claim his first ever GP race win.
Magnussen’s verdict after the Sprint race
In a honest admission after the Sprint to Sky Sports F1, Magnussen said: “All the penalties were well deserved – no doubt about it. But I had to play the team game again.
“I started using these stupid tactics which I don’t like doing, but at the end of the day I did my job as a team player.
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“Nico scored his points because I got that gap for him so Lewis and Tsunoda couldn’t catch him.
“Not the way I like to go racing at all, but it was what I had to do.”
Source: Motorsport - thesun.co.uk
