Forced to pit to repair damage to his car, Kevin Magnussen believes that race stewards are too easily influenced these days.

Battling with Lewis Hamilton at the start, the pair touched in Turn 3, resulting in the Dane sustaining damage to his front wing.

Though he held fifth position behind Hamilton, and was subsequently passed by George Russell, Magnussen was content with his car's performance following the clash.

However, in a radio call to his team, Esteban Ocon advised that he was concerned that the damaged piece of the Dane's front wing might fall off and hit him - shortly after the Haas driver was shown the black and orange flag demanding him to pit for reasons of safety.

Pitting, as requested, shortly after, Magnussen rejoined the race in last position finally ending the day a distant 17th.

"I just had a bit of contact, nothing serious," said the Dane at race end. "I scratched my front wing a little bit and then was told to pit.

"I was talking to Ocon just now and he was just joking how he told the FIA that it was really bad," he explained. "If you know you can influence the FIA like that, you're going to do it, aren't you? Which is what he did, fair play.

"But you've got to let us drive with that s***," he insisted, "it's nothing. I was keeping up, the car was fine. The front wing was safe, it was not broken off.

"Think back to Jeddah last year, Lewis Hamilton won the race without half a front wing, which I think is correct, you know. Let us race if we can."

Asked if he will seek clarification from the FIA, the Dane shrugged and suggested the decision making process is changing and inconsistent.

"I don't know," he said. "It feels suddenly very different. In Monaco they don't start us because it starts drizzling... here I'm called in because I have a scratch on my front wing."

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READERS COMMENTS

1. Posted by Hobgoblin, 21/06/2022 9:02

"to be fair it was a bit more than a scratch - there was a significant portion of the end plate flapping more than CH's mouth."

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2. Posted by Defiant, 20/06/2022 16:32

"I agree with Magnussen. More examples of dodgy decisions by the stewards.

"

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3. Posted by Spindoctor, 20/06/2022 9:45

"I was a bit surprised too, but maybe Magnussen needs to accept a bit of responsibility for attempting a hopeless move on Hamilton that not even last season's Verstappen would have tried. This is his 2nd offence of hitting Hamilton & maybe he needs to work-out that Lewis, with no Championship in sight, is not going to go softly-softly and will defend vigorously...."

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4. Posted by Mad Matt, 20/06/2022 7:54

"I think the issue was whether it might break off and hit another car or driver, as opposed to a broken wing which was now stable...... but yes, to me it seemed a bit over cautious...."

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Magnussen: Stewards too easily influenced

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