‘Silly and unnecessary’ – F1 driver earns Martin Brundle’s wrath at Miami Grand Prix
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Never mind his antics in the Sprint, Martin Brundle says it was Kevin Magnussen’s crash with Logan Sargeant in the Miami GP that was his low point of the weekend.
Magnussen had a penalty-strewn weekend at the Miami International Autodrome where he picked up five time penalties as well as five penalty points on his Super Licence, leaving him just two away from a race ban.
Kevin Magnussen’s Logan Sargeant crash called ‘silly and unnecessary’
Kicking off with enthusiastic defending against Lewis Hamilton in the Saturday Sprint, Magnussen played the role of protector for his team-mate Nico Hulkenberg which ensured the German scored two points for the team.
But leaving the track four times in the 19-lap race, twice while defending against Hamilton to maintain his position ahead of the Mercedes driver, Magnussen picked up time penalties and penalty points.
Such were the stewards’ thoughts on his tactics, they used “exceptional circumstances” to penalise the Dane three points for an offence that usually comes with zero.
But a day later Magnussen’s tally increased to ten when he was slapped with two more penalty points for crashing into Sargeant to bring out the Safety Car.
Fighting the Williams driver for position, Magnussen made an opportunistic move at the exit of Turn 2 and punted Sargeant into the barrier and out of the race. Magnussen also received a time penalty.
Weighing on his various offences, former F1 driver Brundle believes it was the latter incident with Sargeant that was the Dane’s lowest point.
“Kevin Magnussen must have been exasperated with the number of times he was in the steward’s office after each of the two races,” he wrote in his column for Sky Sports.
“He put up a supremely aggressive defence against Hamilton in the Sprint, sometimes over the limit but nevertheless applauded even by Hamilton.
“But in the race Magnussen’s crash with Sargeant was just silly and unnecessary, and created yet another pile of broken parts for the Williams team which is having rather a nightmare start to 2024.”
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Formula 1’s regulations state that any driver who amassed 12 penalty points over a 12-month rolling period will automatically be banned for one race.
Magnussen is up to 10, and he won’t lose any of those points before 9 March 2025.
He didn’t have much to say about the Sargeant incident, which pretty much said it all.
Fulfilling the obligatory media commitments after the Grand Prix, he was asked for his view on the penalty: “I better not [say].”
Asked if the penalty was incorrect: “Better not comment.”
As for Sargeant, the under-fire driver called the incident “disappointing”.
“There’s nothing for me to say about it,” said the American. “More so just a disappointing way to end the weekend.
“Yes, obviously I saw him on my outside into [Turn] One. Saw him try to cut back into Two. Went through Two. Thought he would filter back in and of course, we hit.”