Kevin Magnussen has lost his sixth place in the Belgian GP after the stewards deemed that he had forced Fernando Alonso off the track.
Magnussen was caught up in a spectacular battle with Alonso, Sebastian Vettel and Jenson Button in the closing laps, which eventually finished with Vettel in fifth place ahead of Button and Alonso, the Spaniard having damaged his wing on the Red Bull at the start of the last lap.
However it was a Magnussen/Alonso incident that caught the eyes of the stewards, and he was given a 20s penalty, or the post race equivalent of a drive through, along with two points on his license.
The stewards said: “The driver of car number 20 was defending his position on the straight between turns 4 and 5, a significant portion of car 14 was alongside car 20. The driver of car 20 did nit leave enough space for car 14 and forced the car off the track.”
Prior to the verdict Magnussen said: “I tried to do it as well as I could within the rules. I did enjoy it and it was a big challenge because they all had fresher tyres than me, or at least quite a lot better pace than me, so it wasn’t easy.”
Meanwhle Alonso seemed unconcerned by the incident: “When you are fighting for lower positions, sixth, seventh or whatever. it’s a little bit less of an incident, we just try to have fun, safety as well. It was not a big deal. We’ll see what ther stewards decide.”
The amended results show Button in 6th ahead of Alonso, Sergio Perez, Daniil Kvyat and Nico Hulkenberg.
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