29 October 2023 , 20:56
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Kevin Magnussen's car caught fire after a huge high-speed smash which halted the Mexican Grand Prix.
The Haas driver crashed on lap 35 of the race. TV pictures clearly showed a problem on his Haas which caused the car to swerve violently at high speed, causing the Dane to lose control.
Magnussen was unable to stop the car smashing into the barrier at speed, causing extensive damage to the Haas. Fortunately, he was able to extricate himself from the car under his own power and move to behind the barrier where it was safer.
Shortly after, flames were spotted coming from the rear of the car as the brakes, which were still very hot, were left untreated. The marshals were soon able to get to the car with extinguishers to put out the blaze.
At first, the safety car was deployed. But it soon became clear that there was too much damage done to the barrier which needed to be repaired, so the Grand Prix was red flagged so that the extensive operation could get under way.
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A rear suspension failure was suspected to be the cause of the crash. A Haas spokesperson said they had not received any radio message from Magnussen before he had climbed out of the car and moved to a safe position, but later confirmed that there was no lasting damage done to the Dane.
The race was stopped for around 20 minutes and the restart was done from the grid, with everyone having had the chance to change their tyres. And the restart went ahead without incident at the first corner, with Max Verstappen leading the race.
Magnussen's smash came after Sergio Perez has crashed out of his home race at the first corner. He started fifth but got an excellent launch off the line, meaning he went into the first corner with a chance of taking the lead.
He was on the outside of the track with Charles Leclerc to his right and team-mate Verstappen on the inside line. Perez tried to sweep around the Ferrari but they made contact, sending his Red Bull up into the air and crashing down hard onto the track.
He tried to carry on initially after nursing the car back to the pit lane. But there was a massive hole in his sidepod and likely damage to the floor and, after inspections from his mechanics, the decision was made to retire the car.
"I had a tremendous start... the gap was there," said Perez. "Since I was starting the race, I would have been disappointed had I gone for podium again. I just went for it, and did not expect Charles to brake a late as Max. Three cars shouldn't go into turn one.
"I'm very sad for the end result but on the other side I'm extremely proud of myself as I gave it my all. We probably had the best start of the year and I just went for it."