Pierre Gasly was furious with Kevin Magnussen on Sunday night in Azerbaijan. The Frenchman described his F1 rival as the most dangerous driver he’s ever raced against – and this is what led to his rather pointed remarks.
Why Gasly branded Magnussen ‘the most dangerous driver on the grid’
The incident in question occurred at the second Safety Car re-start while Gasly and Magnussen were battling for 10th place and the final point. The stewards launched an investigation and handed the Haas driver a 10-second time penalty, moving the Dane one place behind Gasly in the final race standings in P13.
However, that did little to calm the furious Toro Rosso driver.
“Kevin is the most dangerous guy I have ever raced with,” blasted Gasly. “He literally put me in the wall at 300 kph at the re-start and completely ruined the race. I would have been in the worst case P10 at the last restart, so this is one thing.
“The Safety Car came out, we pitted and were P11. I knew points were on the table. I was going to pass him just before the Safety Car line 1, went on the side, and he just put me in the wall right in the middle and took half of my floor out.
“Both my front wheels went in the air, broke my right mirror and bent my steering as well. After that I was just trying to survive until the end of the race. There was almost no point to race after that."
As well as the time penalty, Magnussen was awarded two penalty points on his licence, taking his tally to eight for the last 12 months. As per the regulations, he will receive an automatic one-race ban if he reaches 12 points in a one-year period.
“The driver of car 20 (Magnussen) moved unpredictably and unnecessarily to the left and collided with car 10 (Gasly) which was maintaining its direction,” read the stewards' document.
However, Gasly was unhappy with a second move shortly after and went to see the FIA's F1 Race Director Charlie Whiting after the race.
“What Kevin did today was incorrect and he was duly penalised for it,” said Whiting. “What Pierre was complaining about was he appeared to have done it again after the first contact.”
When asked if he had any plans to speak to Magnussen, Gasly replied: "Honestly I don't care about all this. I knew exactly what he was doing, and he put me in the wall.
"He's been always like this. He's been always racing hard. I don't mind racing drivers which are hard, but like this is just way over the limit. You don't put someone in the wall at 300 kph."
In his defence, Magnussen said: “I had so many vibrations in the car that the mirrors were useless, I couldn’t see anything at all.”
It was the second the time the two had clashed in Baku, with Gasly feeling he was squeezed by Magnussen during practice.
