35 seconds. This is the amount of the penalty that the stewards inflicted on Kevin Magnussen during the Sprint Race of the Miami Grand Prix which took place in the Italian afternoon today.
The Danish driver received three 10-second penalties for repeatedly leaving the track and thus gaining an advantage, but also another 5-second penalty and a black and white flag for a further infringement related to track limits.
All this to put together the second tough defense, well beyond the rules, with which it allowed Haas to bring home important points for its World Championship thanks to the seventh place obtained by Nico Hulkenberg. Magnussen defended his teammate’s position from an attacking Lewis Hamilton, but he did so by often going beyond the regulations.
“All the penalties they gave me were deserved and I have no doubt about it,” Kevin Magnussen told Sky Sports F1 at the end of the Sprint Race.
Kevin Magnussen, Haas VF-24, Yuki Tsunoda, RB F1 Team VCARB 01, Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes F1 W15
Photo by: Andy Hone / Motorsport Images
“But I had to adopt that attitude once again. I was in a very good position behind Hulkenberg. At the start of the race I gained a lot of positions and was up to eighth, protecting myself well from Lewis’ attacks because I had the DRS of Nico”.
“But then Nico cut a chicane and I lost the DRS (it happened on lap 6 and was not investigated). Nico should have given me the DRS back, because we would have easily obtained seventh and eighth place. Instead, without DRS I was very vulnerable compared to Lewis. At that point we started fighting like crazy.”
At that point Magnussen adopted the same race tactic already used in Jeddah, to defend Hulkenberg who was in the points. “I started using those stupid tactics, which I really don’t like to do. But in the end I did my job as a driver working for the team.”
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