Magnussen confirmed in fourth as stewards take no action over Hamilton incident

Kevin Magnussen has been confirmed in fourth on the grid for the Miami Grand Prix after the stewards decided to take no action over an incident between him and Lewis Hamilton.

The pair were placed under investigation after encountering each other at turn 17 during the first phase of qualifying. Hamilton caught the Haas driver quickly at the hairpin and swerved to avoid him, striking the barrier with the right-hand side of his car.

Both drivers progressed to the next phase of qualifying. Hamilton dropped out in Q2 while Magnussen reached the final phase and put his Haas on the second row of the grid.

After speaking to both drivers, the stewards decided to penalise neither, removing the threat to Magnussen’s best qualifying position for a grand prix since 2014.

“Car 44 [Hamilton] was on an in-lap and could see car 20 [Magnussen] at the end of the straight,” the stewards explained. Hamilton had originally been told to do two cool-down laps after his first timed lap in Q1, but chose to pit for a change to his front wing.

“The unexpectedly high speed differential between the two cars resulted in car 44 having to take evasive action to avoid a collision,” the stewards continued.

“Given that neither car was on a fast lap and the fact that car 20 had another slow car ahead of it, we did not consider either driver to be driving dangerously. Given that they were not on fast laps, there was no question of impeding either. So in the circumstances, we decided to take no further action.”

Magnussen said he was “well chuffed” with his performance in qualifying. “In the US, the Miami Grand Prix, in front of a home crowd, title sponsors. it’s great to be able to put on a result like that.

“Of course it’s no points for qualifying, we know that, but we also know how good it feels to have a good qualifying. So that was a lot of fun and hopefully that gets everyone a bit pumped for tomorrow.”

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