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Magnussen to get two new tyre sets after fire destroys original allocation

19:15, 28 Sep 2018

byJake Williams-Smith

Kevin Magnussen will be allocated two new sets of tyres for the Russian Grand Prix weekend after a malfunction caused a fire which destroyed two original sets belonging to the Dane. No further damage occurred to any property but Haas will be allowed a new allocation to replaced the destroyed tyres.

Security guards quickly spotted the fire that was caused by faulty tyre blankets and were quickly on the scene to put out the flames. The FIA officially gave permission to Haas on Friday that the team would be allowed new sets to replace the old ones.

“I think it was a fire, and a fire is always dangerous,” Team Principal Guenther Steiner told the official F1 website. “It was a blown a little bit out of proportion already. There was a shortcut - we don’t know if it was the cable or the tyre blanket, because everything is burned - so we will investigate.

“The good thing was the night guards were around and they caught it. I wouldn’t say early, but they caught it, and there could have been a lot more damage if they hadn’t caught it. All these night guard guys worked together to extinguish it and did a great job, so I want to thank them for that.

“Until we investigate what actually happened we won’t know. I would not say one or the other, I don’t know them. When this happens it is not our main focus now to investigate this, we put everything in a box and send it back to base and see what happens and that it doesn’t happen again.

That’s the most important thing, that it doesn’t happen again, because it could have worked out a lot worse.”