Kubica: Magnussen kerb splash caused “nasty” shunt

Robert Kubica says his heavy crash in the second practice session was triggered by Kevin Magnussen splashing water onto the track in front of him.

The Williams driver hit the barrier hard after his car snapped out of control at turn three. Kubica hadn’t driven in the first practice session, as Nicholas Latifi had been in his car.

“This was my first lap around here, at the exit of turn two, actually already in turn three very late I lost the car in a very nasty way,” he said.

“Which I didn’t really understand. But then after reviewing, the Haas who was in front of me by a few seconds [Magnussen] went off and over the kerb and pulled out quite a lot of water. I was [on] the hard tyres and lost it completely in a very nasty way.”

Kubica said the crash was “frustrating because in the end we need a bit of luck.”

“It’s not an easy situation for us. Today we didn’t have luck. It was unfortunate, I was the first car coming there and that’s how it is, this is motorsport.

“It was very, very strange. I only understood it when I saw images and video, otherwise I thought something broke. But it didn’t break, there was no failure, it’s just that I lost it completely over the water there.”

Williams has experienced parts shortages in recent races but the team’s senior race engineer Dave Robson expects to have Kubica’s FW42 ready to run again tomorrow. “We will assess the extent of the damage tonight and rebuild the car accordingly,” he said.

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