Magnussen looks back: 'That was the most dangerous thing of the weekend'

Kevin Magnussen had probably the most insane weekend of his career in Brazil. To his own surprise, the Dane picked up his first pole in Formula 1, scored an important point for Haas in the sprint race, but also had a particularly strange Sunday.

The Grand Prix was already over in the first lap as Daniel Ricciardo tapped him backwards. It had previously been revealed that the FIA then forgot to pick him up with a car and bring him back to the pits. Therefore, Magnussen had to wait by the track for the entire race.

No ride back

In Abu Dhabi, he looks back on that incident with the media, including GPblog. "For whatever reason, I did not catch a ride back to the pits. Daniel took me out of the race and then jumped in the safety car and took my ride back to the pits. And I was left on the side of the track the whole race. I survived that, that’s okay."

Magnussen continued: “I tried to speak to the marshals, but they did not speak a word of English. After the race I was waiting for someone to pick me up. But then the marshals started leaving. And then I was like: ‘Okay, what do I do?’ So, I walked in the same direction but ended by a fence. I could not see a way out. Of course, I could have walked the whole track and go to start-finish. Some of the marshals realised I was in trouble and cut a hole in the fence and lifted me through the fence.”

Weird situation

Through the crowd, Magnussen then managed to make his way back to the pits. "It was the most dangerous thing I did all week," he laughed. The FIA, meanwhile, apologised. "It is a pretty weird situation. They just had to pick me up. How hard can that be?, Magnussen said.

Editor-in-chief Tim Kraaij reported from Abu Dhabi for this article