Pierre Gasly Defends Kevin Magnussen, Urges Stewards to Reverse His Penalty and Race Suspension

Kevin Magnussen has attracted quite a bit of attention for his controversial on-track actions in the 2024 season. The Italian Grand Prix was no exception — this time he collided with Pierre Gasly which eventually led to a race ban for him.

However, Gasly believes that the punishment given to Magnussen was unfair because he was able to continue his race without any significant consequence from the collision. That is why, the Alpine driver thinks that the stewards should reverse their decision to reinstate the Dane for the Azerbaijan Grand Prix.

Gasly said in Magnussen’s defense, “When someone told me he got a 10-second penalty, I was surprised. He tried to overtake me and we ended up wheel to wheel, but in the end, I didn’t lose any time. I hope the stewards can overturn the suspension because it would be really unfair.”, Formule1.nl reported.

Magnussen had already accumulated 10 penalty points on his super license. The 10-second time penalty along with two penalty points for the incident with Gasly meant that his penalty points tally reached 12 — which is the limit for getting a race ban, according to the rules that came into effect in 2014. Interestingly, this makes Magnussen the only driver to trigger this penalty in the last 10 years.

Pierre Gasly was “surprised” his clash with Kevin Magnussen incurred the penalty points that have led to Magnussen’s race ban and wants to help him avoid it ⬇️ pic.twitter.com/EwsBCdsO7L

— The Race (@wearetherace) September 1, 2024

Despite the 10-second penalty, Magnussen ended up finishing in the points (P10) at Monza while the Frenchman finished the race in P15, a place lower than his starting grid position.

Talking about the whole situation, Haas team principal Ayao Komatsu later said that the team has accepted Magnussen’s one-race ban. They have reportedly opted to put Oliver Bearman in the Dane’s seat for the next race in Azerbaijan, which could be a good thing for the young British driver.

Bearman is already going to join Haas full-time in 2025. This race in Baku will give him a much-needed experience after his outstanding debut for Ferrari in Saudi Arabia earlier this year.