Magnussen caught out by understeer in crash

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Kevin Magnussen was caught out by understeer which led to his crash during FP2 for the Monaco Grand Prix.

The Renault driver ran wide at the final corner - Anthony Noghes - and hit the wall straight on, breaking the front wing and burying the nose in the barrier. Explaining the crash after the end of Thursday's running, Magnussen said he simply had less grip than he expected when turning in.

“I just understeered into the wall," Magnussen said. "I turned in and had no grip.

“Looking through the data I didn’t go any faster than the lap before, I hit the wall slightly, but it only damaged the front wing. The suspension is okay, which is nice for the mechanics as they’re not going to have such a long night.

“Still not the best day really. We thought we’d made a step forward in the test in Barcelona, but we’ve come here and we don’t have the car we expected."

With Daniel Ricciardo setting the pace in the Renault-powered Red Bull, Magnussen says it highlights where his team is lacking.

“It’s all chassis. The engine has delivered, it’s a good step. But for us we could have the best engine on the grid right now and we’d still be close to where we are.

"The engine is not our main concern at the moment. I’m very happy to say Renault has done a great job, they’ve achieved what they promised with the numbers and laptime goals, so that’s a good job from them and is very encouraging.”

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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.