Kevin Magnussen was unfortunate to see his Malaysian Grand Prix race compromised by a first lap incident that ultimately attributed to his retirement.
The Renault Sport F1 driver had started fourteenth on the grid but due to the Nico Rosberg and Sebastian Vettel incident at turn one, the field bunched up, with Magnussen finding himself in the middle of Esteban Gutierrez and Daniil Kvyat on the inside of the turn.
Magnussen’s front wing hit Gutierrez’s rear tyre, while Kvyat then hit the back of the Renault car, and despite a pit stop for a new front wing, the damage was far more severe and he pulled back into the pits on lap seventeen with overheating brakes.
“I was the filling in the sandwich as everyone reacted to the Vettel / Rosberg incident at the start,” said Magnussen. “Everyone braked and went for the inside of the corner which isn’t great if you’re already at the inside of the corner and have contact from behind pushing you forward.
“That’s motor racing sometimes. We changed the front wing and kept pushing, however the brake cooling was damaged, and the brake temperature kept climbing, so we had to retire.”
Despite his retirement, Magnussen remained positive after seeing team-mate Jolyon Palmer secure his first point of the season, feeling the team continue to show improved performance towards the end of the season.
“Nevertheless it’s been a promising weekend,” said Magnussen. “We continue to extract more pace from the car and we’ll be pushing to keep this level of performance.
“I scored last time out; Jo scored today. Points are what we all want to see.”
