‘I have overstepped the line on track – but I’m not the only one’ says Magnussen

Kevin Magnussen has had his fair share of scraps with his F1 rivals over his years in the sport – but the Haas star defended his driving in F1’s latest Instagram live interview, insisting that he's not the only driver to have "overstepped the line".

The Dane had a run-in with Nico Hulkenberg at the 2017 Hungarian Grand Prix – which led to a heated verbal exchange post-race – and he also irked Fernando Alonso in qualifying for the 2018 Italian Grand Prix. But the Haas driver said he’s far from alone when it comes to pushing the limits on track.

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“There are certainly some drivers who have had some issues with it and complained about it and I’m the first to admit that I have overstepped the line at some points, but I don’t think I’m the only one who’s done that.”

The former McLaren and Renault racer added that he thinks the midfield battles can actually get far more heated than those for better positions further up the grid.

“The thing is, the last few years, I’ve been battling right in the midfield and often in the midfield, if you’re in P10 and you’re getting caught from behind from P11 or the other way round… there’s that one point to gain… and there’s not really a lot to lose. I’ve had had very tough battles for P10. Some of them were over the limit.

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“The way I see it is: You’ve got to take it to the limit, not over the limit, for sure, but you’ve got to take it to the limit with your driving style. You have to not take it over the line but to the line, but sometimes that can be hard to find; certainly it’s better to take it under not over.”

Magnussen may have his detractors, but team mate Romain Grosjean has stood by him and said that their collisions in 2019 are a thing of the past. Grosjean had high praise for Magnussen, in fact, as he recently described him as a “proper Viking”.

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