Kevin Magnussen has offered insight into the moments before the heavy crash that ended his Mexico City Grand Prix.
The Dane speared into the barrier at Turn 9 midway through the race with an apparent component failure on the Haas.
As he navigated the highspeed right-hander, the car turned left, rendering Magnussen a passenger.
He was able to climb free from the wreckage, which briefly caught fire before officials arrived on the scene.
The impact damaged the tecpro barriers and saw the race red-flagged for 22 minutes while repairs were made.
“Feeling okay,” Magnussen confirmed to the media, including Speedcafe, after being cleared by the medical team in Mexico.
“I haven’t seen the team yet and maybe they have some more information,” he added.
“But the rear left specifically lost a lot of grip a couple of laps before that and suddenly lost a lot of grip on that, and then it gave up.”
Magnussen had been running 13th at the time, up three places from his grid spot.
A lap prior he’d run wide exiting the final corner, bouncing through the dirt and debris behind the exit kerb.
However, he does not believe that was related to or caused his crash.
“With Kevin, we had a suspension failure, so we need to dig into what happened, but it seems to be heat related,” explained team boss Guenther Steiner.
“It was a tough day again, but it’s not all negative.
“Nico [Hulkenberg] was in a good position to get points, but then with the red flag, which we caused ourselves, we couldn’t keep the tyres in the last stint.
“Our car can’t keep life in the tyres as other cars,” he added.
“We could fight for almost the whole distance, but almost isn’t good enough.
“Otherwise, it seems like the whole team performed well and Nico drove fantastically to try and get something.”
Having run eighth for a time, Hulkenberg fell to 13th at the chequered flag as Haas left Mexico City without points.
Rubbing salt into the wound was the fact Scuderia AlphaTauri scored six points to leap ahead of the American-registered squad in the constructors’ championship, leaving Haas 10th and last in that competition.
Photos: Magnussen Haas wreckage after Mexico City GP crash
