Kevin Magnussen is under investigation by the stewards for “unsportsmanlike behaviour” after collecting four penalties during today’s sprint race in Miami.
The Haas driver said his penalties were due to “stupid tactics” in aid of his team mate Nico Hulkenberg.
Magnussen received three separate 10-second penalties for leaving the track and gaining an advantage while battling with Lewis Hamilton and a fourth penalty of five seconds for exceeding track limits four times. The combined 35 seconds of penalties dropped Magnussen from 10th on the road to 18th and last.
Hulkenberg finished seventh to secure two points for the team. Magnussen explained he was trying to defend from a train of cars to help Hulkenberg ahead, as he did in the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix in Jeddah earlier in the season.
“All the penalties were well-deserved – no doubt about it – but I had to play the game again,” Magnussen told Sky after the sprint race.
“I was in a very good position behind Nico there. At the beginning of the race, I gained a lot of positions, I was up in P8. I protected well from Lewis, because I had DRS from Nico and I had good pace, I felt.
“But then Nico cut the chicane, and I lost the DRS and Nico could have given that back to give me the DRS to protect, because then we would have easily been P7 and P8. Instead I was really vulnerable to Lewis, started fighting with him like crazy.”
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Magnussen admitted that he took no joy from racing in the manner he did throughout the sprint race.
“I had to just create the gap like I did in Jeddah and start using these stupid tactics, which I don’t like doing,” he said.
“But at the end of the day I did my job as a team player and Nico scored his points because I got that gap for him, so Lewis and Tsunoda couldn’t catch him. So not the way I like to go racing at all, but what I had to do today.”
After making those comments the stewards announced a further investigation into Magnussen for “alleged unsportsmanlike behaviour.” They are considering whether he violated a clause of the International Sporting Code which forbids “any infringement of the principles of fairness in competition, behaviour in an unsportsmanlike manner or attempt to influence the result of a competition in a way that is contrary to sporting ethics.”
Magnussen’s four in-race penalties are likely to result in him receiving more penalty points on his superlicence as a result of…
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