Kevin Magnussen, Daniel Ricciardo have had to move on from their unfortunate F1 Brazil GP incident which ended their race halfway on Lap 1.
After his pole on Friday evening, Haas’ Magnussen had a decent F1 Brazil GP sprint race where he finished in points inside the Top 10 for Sunday’s grand prix. But that was a short-lived run as halfway into the lap, he had a collision with McLaren’s Ricciardo.
It was a clumsy collision where Ricciardo did brake but it wasn’t enough where a minor touch on the rear spun Magnussen around and caught out the Australian in the process too. He was handed a 3-place grid drop in Abu Dhabi after the FIA stated him to be at fault.
For Magnussen, it wasn’t the end he wanted especially with the pace he had. “That was obviously a race I wanted to be part of,” he said. “I think our car has had great pace all weekend… Daniel didn’t do it on purpose but of course it’s no use for us. But we will move on. We are not always happy, and we’ve been this weekend.
“It’s a shame that we weren’t able to capitalise fully today because our car had great pace this week,” summed up Magnussen, as Ricciardo explained his side of things which led to the incident. The Australian lamented the first lap collisions which eventually ends any chance of racing after gearing up for it.
“Lap 1 incidents are brutal for sure,” said Ricciardo. “I don’t think there is anything worse than a Lap 1 incident because you obviously get so excited to go racing. The start was solid, I had Gasly. I haven’t seen a replay yet but what I remember was I had a decent run through six, seven and I remember cutting back to the inside for eight and I was kind of having a look but also just trying to brake with a little bit of clean air.
“I remember braking, I remember then Kevin protecting the line, so I was then just trying to pull back in line and I remember it bottling up a bit and then obviously at the apex I gave him a little touch. To be honest it didn’t feel like much and then as soon as I saw him about to slide I was like ‘oh’ and then the second part, obviously that is when we made bigger contact.
“I don’t know… I could have braked harder or more or if it was just the way he squared up the corner or the angle, I don’t know. Also, I’m not here to say it’s his fault, my fault; of course I mean if it’s my fault of course I’ll apologise. But it’s more just I’m sorry for both of us for not being in the race and sorry for our teams. That’s the part that hurts the most… and Lap 1 incidents, they are certainly the worst,” summed up Ricciardo.
Here’s crash between Daniel Ricciardo and Kevin Magnussen: https://www.formula1.com/en/latest/video.2022-sao-paulo-grand-prix-magnussen-and-ricciardo-out-of-the-race-after-lap-1-collision.1749407203097308472.html
Here’s how F1 Brazil GP panned out
