Kevin Magnussen has said he has apologised to Pierre Gasly "many times" after it was shown that he squeezed the Toro Rosso driver into the wall during the closing laps of the Azerbaijan Grand Prix on two occasions.
It's believed the debris from that clash caused then race leader Valtteri Bottas' puncture, which cost the Mercedes driver the race victory.
Gasly slammed Magnussen after the race, describing him as "the most dangerous guy I have ever raced with”, adding "he literally put me in the wall at 300km/h at the restart and completely ruined the race."
Magnussen was handed a time penalty and two points on his license after stewards deemed he was the guilty party in the clash.
In an interview with Reuters, Magnussen was quoted as saying he is overly aggressive on purpose and would be willing to do die in the car, but later said his comments required clarification, revealing the interview had been conducted prior to the Baku race and therefore weren't made in reflection of the Gasly clash.
"The interview was done before the race in Baku and is not minded on the incident with Pierre in the race," wrote the Haas driver on social media.
"I didn't squeeze Pierre on purpose and have apologised to him many times after the incident."
Magnussen continued to clarify his comments, adding: "I don't want to die in a race car. I was expressing my willingness to give absolutely everything in my power to achieve success. Success to me obviously isn't having accidents or getting penalties but finishing races in as high a position as possible.
"I am living my childhood dream of racing in Formula 1 and I've put my whole life into achieving that dream so it is only natural for me to be giving absolutely everything I've got, to achieve success in racing and the day I no longer do that I will retire from racing immediately."
