Fan video shows Renault drivers tangling on final lap

2016 Spanish Grand Prix

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Video shot by an F1 fan at the Circuit de Catalunya reveals the moment Renault drivers Kevin Magnussen and Jolyon Palmer made contact on the final lap of the Spanish Grand Prix. The incident was not seen on the world feed during the broadcast of Sunday’s race.

Magnussen was attempting to pass his team mate for 13th place at turn 13 when the pair made contact. As the video shows, Palmer continued across the run-off and kept the position while Magnussen negotiated the chicane.

The stewards ruled in favour of Palmer, handing his team mate a ten second penalty. That dropped Magnussen to 15th place in the final classification behind Felipe Nasr. Magnussen was also given penalty points on his licence.

At the end of the race Magnussen was running on a set of soft tyres which were 22 laps fresher than the hard compounds on his team mate’s car and caught Palmer at around three seconds per lap.

The pair have now finished ahead of each other twice in the four races where both drivers saw the chequered flag. Magnussen’s seventh place at the Russian Grand Prix remains the team’s only points finish so far this year.

An onboard video of the collision has also been released by FOM.

2016 Spanish Grand Prix

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    Keith Collantine
    Lifelong motor sport fan Keith set up RaceFans in 2005 - when it was originally called F1 Fanatic. Having previously worked as a motoring...

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    16 comments on “Fan video shows Renault drivers tangling on final lap”

    1. “Hamilton’s fault.”

      Nah, seriously, I get it that Magnussen had fresher tyres, but he was so messy in T12 in the first place, he also carried a huge flat-spot on his left front, but these things are not significant errors still.

      But he was so far back that he would have never made the corner regardless of bumping Palmer out of the way or not. He divebombed him, he understeered into him, it’s 100% his fault.

      It’s pretty much like how Ricciardo tried to pass Vettel, he also let his control of his vehicle go and was just a passenger intentionally as he understeered heavily inside the Ferrari.

    2. Foolish, pointless move but boys are boys.

    3. 10 seconds race time added and a 2 points penalty? For this?
      How much penalty was it that Rosberg/Hamilton got?
      How much penalty to Vettel/Kvyat?
      How much to… Yes, the list can go on and on.
      If this is the level on where you receive penalties, then many more should be handed out at each race.
      This case was indeed clumsy driving, but both cars carried on and Magnussen did not gain any track advantage.

      1. it’s as I always say, different rules for different drivers, the only time front runners will get a penalty is if it’s 100% guaranteed penalty, if Magnussen and Palmer did what Hamilton and Rosberg did there is a good chance they would’ve picked up a significant penalty for Monaco, but let’s be honest the FIA don’t want to hurt a championship contender going into the biggest race of the year.

        1. I kind of agree. I can only see one driver who could have been penalised here, Rosberg, (but that’s not the point) and if they’d have done that, a three- or five- or ten-place grid penalty, for example, it would have made for a pretty sure Hamilton victory in Monaco.

      2. Yeah, the stewarding is outrageously inconsistent.

    4. Wow loads of empty seats in the stands – did they all leave when Alonso dropped out?

      1. Last paragraph dude :-)

    5. Yeah, dumb move, but he owned up to it. So, I’ll take that.

      Certainly no more worthy of a penalty than the Merc cars.

    6. Well, let’s see. Palmer started to turn right in the middle of a straight, when Magnussen was already half the way alongside, and squeezed him off the track.
      Rosberg started to move right immediately after the turn, at the time when Hamilton was still safely tucked behind him, so when Hamilton put his nose into a gap, it was a borderline gap that was steadily shrinking for almost a second by that time.
      Magnussen got a penalty.
      Go figure.
      By the way, I am not suggesting Hamilton should have gotten one, I am fine with the official verdict. But one thing is the official verdict, another thing is what is being said behind closed door in team debriefing.

    7. After watching both the fan video and the onboard video my first reaction was is that it?

      Seriously, am I missing something, Magnussen attempted an ambition move on his teammate which didn’t work, neither car was damaged and there was no change in positions.

      Yes it was a bit clumsy from Magnussen but the move didn’t mean anyone retired or change the end result, if the manoeuvre had meant that Palmer had lost places then I could understand the penalty.

      Given some of the moves that go unpunished I don’t see why this was penalised and can I honestly say that now when incidents are referred to the stewards I have no idea what decision they will come to.

    8. That’s the Magnussen I remember from the 2014 season. Plenty of talent, but overly and I have to add in this case also unnecessarily agressive on the racetrack.
      Nice avoiding reaction from Palmer though, I think he’s bit of an underrated driver. Don’t really know why. I havent seen him in GP2, but he has shown some proper wheel to wheel racing skills this season.

      1. This was actually the first time I’ve seen K-Mag lose control in a wheel-to-wheel situation since his debut in 2014. He’s actually one of the best in wheel-to-wheel combat. (Many memorable moments from 2014.)

        Now he lost it, probably because – for the very first time – Palmer was actually clearly quicker in terms of race pace on equal tyres (2nd stint or whatever, check the race chart) which must have frustrated him. The closest Palmer got was Melbourne where they had all but matched each other to hundredths of a second in quali and very likely in the race as well.

        Which brings us to your second point: Palmer is actually not that good at all. No wonder they were rumours of Renault replacing him. They now don’t need his money that much and he was mostly very very clearly slower than Magnussen (bar Melbourne quali, Melbourne race and Barcelona race).

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