Magnussen admits flurry of penalties in Sprint was ‘well deserved’

Kevin Magnussen's aggressive defending against Lewis Hamilton in Saturday’s Miami Grand Prix sprint race resulted in three separate penalties, but all were justified insisted the Haas driver.

However, his deliberate tactics ultimately proved beneficial for the Haas team – and not for the first time this season – as they allowed his teammate Nico Hulkenberg to secure seventh in the race and two valuable championship points.

Magnussen admitted to the merits of the penalties, accepting the illegality of his maneuvers, which included cutting a chicane, colliding with Hamilton's car, and forcing him off the track.

While acknowledging his discomfort with his aggressive driving that left him last in the race’s classification, the Dane ultimately expressed no regrets, as his tactics ultimately contributed to a positive outcome for the Haas team.

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"All the penalties were well deserved, no doubt about it,” Magnussen conceded.

“But I had to play the game again. I was in a very good position behind Nico there and, at the beginning of the race, I gained a lot of positions and was up in P8.

"I was protected well from Lewis because I had DRS from Nico and had good pace, I felt. But then Nico cut the chicane and I lost DRS.”

While Hulkenberg undeniably benefitted for his teammate’s ploy, the German did little to return the favour to help Haas achieve an even better result, a fact that wasn’t lost on the Danish driver.

“Nico could have given that back to protect me because we would easily have been P7 and P8, but instead I was really vulnerable to Lewis,” Magnussen said.

"I started fighting with him like crazy and I had to create the gap like I did in Jeddah, using these stupid tactics which I don't like doing.

“But at the end of the day I did my job, I'm a team player and Nico scored his points because I got that gap for him. Lewis and [Yuki] Tsunoda couldn't catch him.

“It's not the way I like to go racing at all, but it's what I had to do today."

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