Magnussen furious that Perez and Red Bull got away with it: 'Bullsh*t '
- GPblog.com
Kevin Magnussen crossed the line ninth in the United States Grand Prix, but in the end, the Haas F1 driver qualified eighth after Fernando Alonso's time penalty for driving an unsafe car. The Dane is happy with the result but seems to resent the inconsistency of the race management.
Already several times this year, Magnussen was shown the 'meatball' flag. This flag is black and has an orange dot in the middle. When the race organisers wave this flag, it means that a driver has to make a pit stop because a part is loose and could cause dangerous situations on the track. Haas F1 already thought it was unfair in the situations with Magnussen that he had to come in for repairs and the anger has only increased now that Sergio Perez and Alonso did not have to come in in Austin.
Haas F1 went into a protest against the result and the stewards ruled that Alonso had indeed driven his laps with an unsafe Alpine car. Perez was eventually cleared though. Prior to filing the protests, Magnussen was told that Perez drove six laps with a loose wing endplate before it only fell off. "That's bullsh*t, isn't it?", Perez said according to Motorsport-Magazin about the race organisers not bringing Perez in.
Magnussen about his own race
For the first time since the Austrian Grand Prix, there were points again for Magnussen. Thanks to a clever one-stop, he picked up four points. "I'm super happy. For us as a team, it's very important to get these points at our home race in the US - and it's very big on the weekend that we announce a great title sponsor with MoneyGram - it couldn't come at a better time. Of course, I'm gutted to lose a position to Sebastian. I have to say it was some driving from him, that's when you realize why he's a four-time World Champion. The strategy that we pulled off was purely by guidance with the team. As such a small team to put on a fight like this, it's great."