Magnussen unhappy with call to pit for mere front wing 'scratch'

An unhappy Kevin Magnussen was frustrated with the Canadian GP race control's decision to call him in for a mandatory front wing change follwoing a brush with Lewis Hamilton on the opening lap of the race.

Magnussen, who had lined up a promising P5 on the grid, was dicing wheel-to-wheel with Hamilton's Mercedes amid the pack when a minor contact between the two damaged the front-wing right endplate on the Haas driver's VF-22.

The US outfit's pitwall visually spotted the damage and told Magnussen to continue his race as normal. But race control deemed the broken endplate a safety hazard for other drivers and thus ordered the black-and orange flag to be deployed.

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The subsequent lengthy pit stop and wing change predictably wreaked havoc on Magnussen's strategy plans and race.

"I scratched my front wing a little bit and then was told to pit," he explained.

"The front wing was safe, it was not broken off. Think back to Jeddah last year, Lewis Hamilton won the race with half a front wing… which I think is correct, you know, let us race if we can.

"In Monaco they don’t start us because it starts drizzling. Here I’m called in because I have a scratch on my front wing."

Magnussen was the only driver in the field along with Aston Martin's Lance Stroll to attempt a one-stopper in Sunday's race. But the strategy, coupled with his front-wing issue, did not pay dividends.

"We pitted on lap 10 or something and then we tried to do the rest of the race on Hard, one set. I was always going to be difficult," he said.

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