Kevin Magnussen has revealed that his coming together with Sergio Perez during the Monaco Grand Prix was the result of an unexplained shift into anti-stall.
Magnussen and Perez were running towards the bottom end of the pack having endured a difficult qualifying session on Saturday.
Perez, who pitted at the end of the first lap, was forced to make a second stop when he collided with the rear of Magnussen’s Haas car at the Nouvelle Chicane.
The Red Bull driver accused Magnussen of “brake-checking” him – however Magnussen reveals that his car slipped into anti-stall, stripping away his forward momentum.
“I got hit a lot, two or three times I got hit on my diffuser,” the Dane said, reflecting on a difficult grand prix.
“One other time I got into anti-stall at the bus stop, somehow. I hit the kerb there and it went into anti-stall, so I couldn’t react quick enough and Checo drove up the rear end.
“There was some damage there, but anyway, I think our race was over by then anyway.”
Magnussen found himself in the wall later in the race when opted to stay out on the Hard compound while rivals switched to Intermediates amid rainfall.
As he prepared to switch to the full Wet compound, he hit the barrier in the final sector before retiring a handful of laps later.
“Initially it [staying out on the Hard tyre] was hope that it would stop and that we could continue and skip the pit stop,” Magnussen said.
“A couple of people had already gone for Inters, so if it stopped raining, maybe you can gain a lot there. It was only in the beginning at least, wet in sector two.
“Most of sector one and three was dry so it was looking OK. But then it started raining completely and by that point we had already lost out a lot.
“I was pushing to stay out in case there was a red flag, because that would be our only kind of chance.”
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