No F1 penalties for bizarre Magnussen/Ocon FP3 incident
Kevin Magnussen and Esteban Ocon have been cleared by the FIA stewards for their bizarre incident late on during final practice for Formula 1’s Spanish Grand Prix.
Ocon swerved to avoid Magnussen and ended up sending his Renault into the wall after spinning in avoidance of the Danish driver at Turn 3, an incident which brought out the red flags and ended the final practice session prematurely.
Ocon had just left the pits and had let Magnussen through, but the Haas driver was not on a flying lap and suddenly slowed to allow an approaching Williams to overtake.
The Frenchman appeared to be distracted as he looked in his mirrors and only reacted to Magnussen’s slowing Haas at the last-minute, slamming his brakes on and putting his RS20 into a spin.
Both drivers were called to see the stewards before qualifying but were cleared of any wrongdoing.
The stewards ruled that “Magnussen lifted and slowed using ERS harvesting; there was no use of the brakes that contributed to the accident. This was confirmed with telemetry.”
Drama between Esteban Ocon and Kevin Magnussen at the end of FP3 #SpanishGP #F1 pic.twitter.com/auSA7RtD2A
— Formula 1 (@F1) August 15, 2020
“Magnussen pulled gently off line, having been advised of following traffic on fast laps,” the stewards continued.
“At the same time Ocon was also moving to the right to let traffic by and was looking in his mirrors for the cars following. When he subsequently looked forward, he was surprised to see Magnussen directly ahead of him and swerved to avoid a collision.
“Both drivers and the stewards agreed that it was an unfortunate accident and that neither driver was to blame. The stewards therefore take no further action.”
Renault confirmed Ocon was unhurt in the accident despite taking a precautionary trip to the circuit’s medical centre, while Ocon’s engine and gearbox will not need to be replaced.
The French manufacturer said it was “confident” it could get Ocon’s car fixed in time for qualifying.
