Steiner offers a defense of 'bad boy' Magnussen… again

Haas boss Guenther Steiner has come out once again in defense of Kevin Magnussen following another dangerous maneuver by the Dane in yesterday's second free practice session.

A slow moving Magnussen was apparently oblivious to the presence of a fast approaching Charles Leclerc when he moved over on the Sauber, the Monegasque having to take avoiding action to prevent a nasty run-in with the Haas.

Magnussen is regularly criticized by his peers for his on-track antics, having clashed as recently as two weeks ago in Baku with Toro Rosso's Pierre Gasly.

• Magnussen reprimanded for 'potentially dangerous manoeuvre'

"Everyone feels entitled to criticise Kevin at the moment," Steiner told Ekstra Bladet newspaper.

"He went to the stewards who reprimanded him but he did not get a punishment so that explains the situation. There's no need to make more out of it.

"At the moment Kevin is the bad boy, so whenever he does the slightest thing, the stewards call him. But at least he knows the way up there now," he added with a bout of humour.

Steiner believes Magnussen's case is overblown, and the criticism will eventually simply dissipate.

"I think there's a snowball effect. At some point, people will get bored and no one will read about it anymore and drivers will stop complaining.

"I'm very easy about it and don't take it as badly as some others do," he said.

Gallery: The beautiful wives and girlfriends of F1 drivers

Keep up to date with all the F1 news via Facebook and Twitter