Kevin Magnussen described his time penalty at the Russian Grand Prix as “bulls***” and believes stewards will realise they made a mistake.
Magnussen tried to defend seventh place against Racing Point’s Sergio Perez but went wide through Turn 2 and did not negotiate the polystyrene blocks as mandated in the event notes issued by the FIA.
Magnussen nonetheless lost the position in going wide, though stewards issued him with a five-second time penalty, which dropped him behind Lando Norris after the chequered flag.
“This is bulls***,” said Magnussen. “We have this Turn 2, which is a crap corner, it’s just stupid, just put gravel there or something.
“I’m not a safety expert and never will be, but I think the way it happened today was I missed that corner, when through a load of crap offline on the run-off, I lost a hell of a lot of time, and got penalised by my own fault.
“The FIA didn’t have to do anything. it wasn’t black and white, and yet they choose to give me a penalty.
“I’m sure they will see it after, I have a feeling that they’ve made a mistake and that they’re going to see that and do a better job next time.
“They’re human as well so they can make mistakes but I hope they see they’ve made mistakes.”
Magnussen added that he put in his best six laps of the weekend in anger after receiving notification of the sanction, as he pulled a gap to ensure he did not drop out of the top 10.
“I got told I had that penalty, they said we need everything for you now, they gave me maximum engine power, used way more than we should have,” he said.
“They [the team] timed it perfectly so I could use all my energy and on top of that I had to do six qualifying laps and I absolutely nailed all of them.
“I obviously had the car to do it as well, everything was perfect for that scenario.”
