RaceFans Round-up: Magnussen “maybe too aggressive”

In the round-up: Haas team principal Ayao Komatsu admitted Kevin Magnussen has been too aggressive at times after he received a one-race ban.

In brief

Magnussen will return after serving ban

Magnussen will miss the next round in Azerbaijan after becoming the first Formula 1 driver to earn an automatic race ban for collecting 12 penalty points on his licence. Komatsu said he accepted the stewards’ decision.

“Kev races hard, he races aggressively and in some occasions the penalty he had, maybe he was too aggressive,” Komatsu told Viaplay. “And this time around he was trying hard and then locked up and then put Gasly off the track. So he got a penalty, I accept that.”

However Komatsu said Magnussen “drove a fantastic race” to ensure he still scored a point after his 10-second time penalty was applied. He also confirmed Magnussen will return to the car to complete the season after serving his ban.

Ferrari’s weakness now a strength – Vasseur

Ferrari team principal Frederic Vasseur said Charles Leclerc’s victory in the Italian Grand Prix using a one-stop strategy shows the team have made their tyre management into a strength.

“Last year tyre management was our biggest weakness whereas now I think it’s one of the advantages we have with this car,” he said.

“It was already the case last week in Zandvoort and now we are quite consistent in terms of race pace to the point that we did think it might be a two-stop but then we saw very low degradation in the second stint and we changed our strategy accordingly and Charles had the race under control all the time. It was a risk, but sometimes you have to take risks and today it worked.”

Mini disqualified after losing title

Gabriele Mini’s disappointment at losing the Formula 3 championship at the last corner of yesterday’s finale was compounded when he was disqualified from the race. The stewards found Mini’s front and rear tyres were below the minimum allowed pressure.

Leonardo Fornaroli’s championship victory, which he originally appeared to secure with a last-lap pass on Christian Mansell, is unaffected by the decision. He was promoted to second place, equalling his best result of the season.

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Social media

Notable posts from X (formerly Twitter), TikTok and more:

A new wrinkle in the power of Pato Who: #IndyCar chatter is that talks with Mexico City are now officially up and sprinting.

— Jenna Fryer (@JennaFryer) September 1, 2024

A frustrating final lap for @astonmartinf1:@alo_oficial was 0.1s away from beating Magnussen to the final point after the Haas driver’s penalty.@lance_stroll put on a set of soft tyres in a bid to take the fastest lap but was beaten by Norris on his worn hards.#F1

— RaceFans (@racefansdotnet) September 1, 2024

Wud much rather see Ferrari red- build the brand…. pic.twitter.com/ZsERwRjqGo

— Derek Daly (@DerekDaly500) September 1, 2024

Again – this mainly p*sses me off because it’s another example of Max getting something easier than he should. Other teams would be much more ruthless. But Max finally has a title challenge and the team he’s competing against are seemingly uninterested in making it remotely hard.

— Brad Philpot 🏎🏁 (@BradleyPhilpot) September 1, 2024

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