If you could pick two drivers on the grid to rely on openly speaking their opinion, Alonso and Magnussen would be pretty high on the list. The two drivers have had a few run-ins in the past and during Q2 for the Italian GP, they another one. The two battled for position into the first corner in the closing minutes, ruining both of their laps.
Fernando – perhaps satisfied that 13th was already a surprisingly good grid position considering McLaren’s issues – found time to laugh about it on team radio, and after the session poked a bit of fun at Magnussen for spoiling his own lap, telling media:
“We were all running together at the end of the out-lap and with all that traffic one of the Haas cars decided to overtake and start the lap in the middle of all the cars that were more or less in position. So we started the lap together and we reached the first corner together and we ruined both our laps.
“There are many classes of drivers and then there’s the Haas ones, who have the third- or fourth-best car of the grid and are out in Q2. I got into Q2, which is one of the things that I wanted. It doesn’t change much for me, I guess more for them, but it’s fun, a lot of fun.”
Magnussen went a step further. Speaking to media after the race, he laid into Alonso’s whole attitude towards racing and admitted that he’s looking forward to no longer having to race with him:
“I don’t care to speculate why he did it. I think it was just pretty stupid and not necessary. He thought he could have the perfect slipstream and overtake me. He gained, I don’t know how many tenths – but you gain a lot if you do that. But I’m not going to let him pass me, and sacrifice my own lap. No way. I know he thinks he’s a god, but no way.
“Obviously he got a perfect slipstream and thought he could overtake into Turn 1 – but I’d rather hang myself. He came to me after qualifying and laughed to my face. Just outright disrespectful. Can’t wait for him to retire. He’s talking about his laps being divine and whatnot. He literally thinks he’s a god. It’s pretty amusing.”
Stewards had a look at the incident but decided that since both drivers had ruined each other’s laps, no further action was necessary.
The beef between K-Mag and Fernando though… wow. You have to wonder if a carefree Fernando is doing it all for a laugh to bring some entertainment to race weekends which he’s otherwise finding pretty miserable. With the two of them starting close to each other on track, let’s hope for some more battles between them – you just know they’ll be a bit spicy…
