Kevin Magnussen lashed out at a “confused” Kimi Raikkonen, accusing the Ferrari driver of “destroying” his qualifying lap at the French Grand Prix.
Raikkonen passed Magnussen as the pair began their final Q3 push laps, but the Finn opted to abort his effort at the Verrerie S, a situation that ostensibly impeded Magnussen.
Stewards deemed that there was “no doubt” Magnussen’s push lap was “thwarted by the proximity” of Raikkonen’s car, but were not of the view that the Ferrari driver “unnecessarily impeded” Magnussen.
No further action was taken in spite of the “negative effect” the incident had on Magnussen’s lap, and the Haas driver heaped criticism on Raikkonen’s approach in Q3.
“It was very strange what he was doing, it was impossible to see what he was doing,” said Magnussen.
“One minute he was pushing and the next second he is stopping on track and then you try and overtake him and he tries to defend… nowhere. Impossible to predict
“I end up trying to pass him because he’s stopping in Turn 14, I do pass him, then he slipstreams down the main straight and overtakes into Turn 1 and then obviously I couldn’t do a lap.
“My lap was destroyed by that. It was impossible to make a gap and it was impossible to overtake, no matter what he was going to fuck the lap.
"If you’re that confused then try not to get in the way of everyone else."
When pressed further on how he felt about the incident, which left him ninth on the grid, Magnussen said: “Yes I’m upset. Because what is he doing?
“He fucked all his laps. He had fuel for I don’t know how many laps, everyone else has fuel for one lap so to begin with I thought he would box because he fucked his lap.
“Then he tries again immediately the lap after that, overtakes us and then backs off again, so surely he’s going to box? But then he tries again.
“So it’s three laps in a row that he tried to push, it makes no sense. There’s no way to predict what he’s going to do.
“Then he obviously overtakes me into Turn 1 and fucks my lap and then doesn’t even complete his lap.”
