Categories: F1 News, Reports and Race ResultsRenault

Suspension failure frustration for Magnussen

Coming into this weekend after an eventful first two races with Renault F1, Kevin Magnussen had said that he simply wanted a nice, quiet, ordinary race that would allow him to show the team what he could do.

Unfortunately Friday's free practice sessions proved lively and eventful in just the sort of way that Magnussen had been hoping to avoid.

"You don’t always get what you want," he sighed after suffering a tyre blow-out in the morning that damaged the car and left him stuck in the garage for the rest of the day while the team made repairs.

Magnussen confirmed that it had been suspension failure that was the reason for his tyre failure in FP1, resulting in sufficient damage to keep him sidelined for the rest of the day.

"A suspension failure, and then the tyre punctured after. You sit down and the tyre touches the floor so it rips," Magnussen explained.

"I was doing 300-310kph and then I felt the car drop and then we started to dance around. No real warning," he recalled. "It was fairly easy to control, straight line not in a corner, just lift off and stop the car.

"Sounds like it has been fixed and we are ready to go tomorrow," he added. "We know what it is and it has been fixed."

While the car will be ready to go in FP3, Magnussen has nonetheless still lost virtually all the practice time available to him on Friday.

"I did the install laps and that was about it. Some aero running which was good to do, so catching up tomorrow."

If Saturday proves to be wet as forecast, then Magnussen could end up at a big disadvantage going into the race itself on Sunday which is expected to be back to the dry and bright conditions seen on Friday.

"I guess it is a big blow because we need to set the car for the race as it looks like it will be dry," he said. "I am going to have no idea where I am going into the race. We will try our best."

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Andrew Lewin

Andrew first became a fan of Formula 1 during the time when Michael Schumacher and Damon Hill were stepping into the limelight after the era of Alain Prost, Nigel Mansell and Aryton Senna. He's been addicted ever since, and has been writing about the sport now for nearly a quarter of a century for a number of online news sites. He's also written professionally about GP2 (now Formula 2), GP3, IndyCar, World Rally Championship, MotoGP and NASCAR. In his other professional life, Andrew is a freelance writer, social media consultant, web developer/programmer, and digital specialist in the fields of accessibility, usability, IA, online communities and public sector procurement. He worked for many years in magazine production at Bauer Media, and for over a decade he was part of the digital media team at the UK government's communications department. Born and raised in Essex, Andrew currently lives and works in south-west London.