F1
Nate Saunders, General Editor, F1 6y

Pierre Gasly labels Kevin Magnussen the 'most dangerous' rival of his career

Formula 1, AutoRacing

Pierre Gasly accused Haas driver Kevin Magnussen of trying to put him in the wall after a high-speed clash at the Azerbaijan Grand Prix. 

The Toro Rosso driver was upset with an incident which occurred at the final Safety Car restart, where the two men came to blows on the long start-finish straight. Gasly eventually finished 12th but he thinks the incident -- and the damage which came with it -- cost him a chance of a point.

"First thing, Kevin is the most dangerous guy I have ever raced with," Gasly said. "He literally put me in the wall at 300 km/h at the restart 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."

Gasly had complained about Magnussen's driving during Friday's second practice session after being blocked at Turn 1 and he said the race incident was not out of character. 

When asked if he would talk to his rival about it, he said: "Honestly I don't care about all this. At some point safety, and at 300 km/h, he did all the race like 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 km/h."

Magnussen was handed a 10-second penalty for the incident, which meant he dropped back behind Gasly after taking the chequered flag, and handed two points on his superlicence. Drivers get a one-race ban when they have 12 points over a rolling 12 month period.

When told of the punishment handed down to Magnussen, Gasly said: "Looking at what I had in China which was a completely different situation, and looking at what he did now, that's ridiculous. This guy should have half the points of the licence removed."

Magnussen offered an explanation for what had happened in his own media session. The Danish driver had been hit by Marcus Ericsson early in the race and he said the lingering damage from that incident made avoiding Gasly impossible.

"I had so many vibrations in the car that the mirrors were useless, I couldn't see anything at all. It was pretty early - apparently already Turn 19 - that he was alongside me. Naturally it's too bad it happened. I knew it would be very hard to keep them behind me after that Safety Car. When the wheels locked, there wasn't much I could do about it."

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