FIA race director Charlie Whiting has revealed the reason why Kevin Magnussen wasn’t penalised for blocking Charles Leclerc during Sunday’s Japanese GP.
The two drivers were battling for position down the main straight when the Sauber pulled out to overtake the Dane only for the Haas to seemingly move across leaving Leclerc nowhere to go but into the back of his car.
On the radio, the Monegasque described Magnussen as “stupid” and wanted an explanation from the stewards which Whiting was happy to provide.
“If you analyse it very, very carefully what you see is two cars coming down with Kevin not moving and then Charles catches, catches, catches,” he said.
“Magnussen is and always will be stupid” @Charles_Leclerc did not mince his words after clashing with K-Mag#JapaneseGP ?? #F1 pic.twitter.com/YOomZEQXnm
— Formula 1 (@F1) October 7, 2018
“He decides to go to the right at exactly the same time – on the video, there’s one frame difference and then Kevin moves. So I think it’s impossible to say that Kevin blocked him, it was just that he’d made the decision that he was going to go right fractionally after Charles had.
“You have to look at it quite a few times and analyse it in a little the detail to see that but I think it was just unfortunate and that’s what the stewards felt.”
The contact would see Magnussen pick up what would be a race-ending puncture with the debris left on the circuit requiring a Safety Car to clear.
Despite Whiting’s claims, for many, this will be another example of the Haas driver taking his aggressive defensive driving too far after a controversial incident back in Baku when Pierre Gasly was pushed into the wall at almost 200mph on the main straight.
Leclerc would also eventually retire from the race at Suzuka after going off at the Degner corners and suggesting “something broke” on his Sauber.