Kevin Magnussen suffered a collision with Sauber F1 Team‘s Marcus Ericsson at turn three of the Australian Grand Prix after suffering understeer, with the resulting damage most likely contributing to his later retirement.
Magnussen had felt positive following qualifying on Saturday despite only reaching seventeenth on the grid, especially as team-mate Romain Grosjean achieved Haas F1 Team’s best result to date, qualifying sixth.
But the Danish driver lost the car coming into turn three through understeer, which unfortunately reduced him to a mere passenger as it made contact with Ericsson.
“I had contact at turn three,” he said. “I had Ericsson on the outside and I understeered into the side of him, which was unfortunate.”
The collision cost Magnussen his front wing but after limping back to the pits he was able to rejoin the field. However, 11 laps before the end a suspension issue, possibly as a result of the earlier incident, forced him to retire.
His time out on track did at least confirm his good opinion of the car from Saturday.
“I lost my front wing and damaged the car a little bit,” he continued. “We changed the front wing and then I went for a long test session to feel the car and learn a bit more about it, which was good.
“It feels good and the car is fast. That’s the really positive thing from this weekend. The car is there. We just have to make it finish and score points.”
