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Formula 1 Monaco GP
Magnussen says Hamilton the "worst" of blockers
Kevin Magnussen blamed Lewis Hamilton for being the "worst" of the blockers, after a traffic mess cost him a shot at delivering his best qualifying position of the season at the Monaco Grand Prix.
Jonathan Noble
Edited: May 27, 2017, 8:18 PM
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The Haas driver had shown strong pace throughout practice to be in contention for a slot in Q3, but it all went wrong in Q2 when he lost time after getting blocked by Lewis Hamilton and Daniil Kvyat.
He ended up 13th fastest overall, but will start 11th thanks to grid penalties for McLaren duo Stoffel Vandoorne and Jenson Button.
Speaking about his frustrations, Magnussen said: "Lewis was the worst one but he was not the only one…on the last corner he made a mistake, and then wanted to cool down his tyres and he had quite a big space in front of him so he didn't need to back off.
"I was on a lap that would have been just about Q3, and I had to back off. But again, he wasn't the only one."
Magnussen said that he was also held up by Toro Rosso's Daniil Kvyat on his first run in Q2, with the traffic situation exacerbated by the fact that drivers were having to run very slow out-laps to carefully manage tyre pressures.
"It has been tricky, and that is why traffic is even more detrimental," he said. "If you get traffic your tyres cool down as well, and you fall out of the window - so your whole run is screwed, at least for us.
"We struggled to get the tyres back in. On the second run in Q2 I had a clean out lap that was good and I thought this would be good, I have my tyres in the window.
"Then I caught Kvyat on my first lap, who was on an out lap, also cruising around and not looking in his mirrors, so I slowed down and cooled down unfortunately my tyres.
"On the second one I had a decent lap that would have been okay for Q3 and then Lewis slowed me. On my first run in Q1 I had traffic, and on my second lap too. I didn't get anything – it was just one big traffic mess and I was a bit unlucky this time as well."
Magnussen was convinced that without the traffic issues he would have been on course for a place in the top 10 of the grid.
"I think we had the car to do it here," he said. "The conditions came to us and I just think it could be really good. I just didn't get the lap free of traffic, it is always the thing here.
"Looking at Romain [Grosjean] who had a clean run, I have been able to match him or have had a little bit of a margin to him all weekend, and he was P8. So it makes it even more annoying."
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