Magnussen believes Vettel "did the right thing" passing Verstappen

Kevin Magnussen believes Sebastian Vettel and the two Renault drivers did "the right thing" when he overtook Max Verstappen in the last few seconds of qualifying for the Chinese Grand Prix.

Verstappen was left absolutely furious, because he wasn't able to cross the line in time to compete in the final flying lap in Q3, after being overtaken by Vettel, Daniel Ricciardo and Nico Hulkenberg.

Magnussen was another one of the drivers, along with his Haas team-mate Romain Grosjean, who were unable to reach the line in time to compete for the final flying lap, but he believes Vettel and the two Renault drivers were right to speed up.

"It was pretty messy so at the end of the lap everyone was trying to, I guess, get started, but also have somebody in front," Magnussen said. "So, it ended up being too much and costs a few guys the lap.

"Everyone also went out at exactly the same time out of the pits. We were following each other and towards the end of the lap you didn't know whether to try and overtake people, which in that case they are going to defend and it was messy."

When asked by Motorsport.com about Verstappen complaining about the drivers that overtook him, Magnussen said: "In the end, if they got the lap, then they did the right thing."