Magnussen: Alonso thinks that ‘he is a god’
Kevin Magnussen has claimed that Fernando Alonso believes that he is a god after almost colliding with the Spaniard in qualifying.
The pair managed to ruin each other’s final runs in Q2 on Saturday afternoon.
The pair went side-by-side into the first chicane, with Alonso locking up his right front tyre as he went round the outside of the Dane.
It is part of an ongoing feud between the two, which has seen the pair almost come to blows several times through the year.
The Haas driver has said that he is waiting for the day the two-time World Champion leaves Formula 1, which will come at the end of the season.
“I can’t wait for Alonso to retire, he thinks he’s a god,” Magnussen said.
“He overtook me into Turn 1 and ruined both of our laps.
“I think we could have got P7, the best of the rest, so that is pretty annoying.”
The Dane was clearly hoping that the stewards would do something about it, but they had no issues with what happened.
“The Stewards determined that the incident between Car 14 and Car 20 at turn one did not specifically constitute unnecessary impeding by either driver, notwithstanding the fact that both drivers lost their lap,” their statement said.
Fernando Alonso, on the other hand, put the blame solely in Magnussen’s court, saying he got in his way at the final turn of the last lap.
“I think on the out lap we were all together with three or four seconds between cars,” Alonso said after qualifying.
“In the last moment, inside Parabolica, he decided to fill the gap I had opened to the car in front and start the lap together.
“If you start the lap together, you arrive to Turn 1 together and yeah it was not a very clever move.”
The Spaniard admitted that his McLaren did not have the pace to get into Q3, but that Magnussen could have done had the incident not occurred.
“For me it doesn’t change much because probably I couldn’t have been in Q3 anyway with the performance,” the two-time World Champion continued.
“But for him, I think he could have been, but he decided in the last moment something that is not very clever.”
He went on to say that the car had improved from Friday’s running, and he was happy with the performance.
“We are happy with the result, yesterday we were P19 and P20,” Alonso added.
“I thought it was impossible to be out of Q1 today, and we are in P13 for tomorrow’s start, so it is a little miracle, and a big thanks to the team because we found a lot of performance overnight.”
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