A on track clash between Renault’s Nico Hulkenberg and Haas driver Kevin Magnussen during the Hungarian Grand Prix turned ugly when the two came face-to-face at the mandatory drivers’ post-race media briefing.
The duo slugged it out during the race for 11th place, and when Hulkenberg tried to overtake Magnussen on the outside of Turn 2, the Haas driver hung him out to dry and forced the Renault onto the grass verge. The Dane was given a five second penalty for the incident and two penalty points on his licence.
After the race, Hulkenberg confronted Magnussen in the media pen and the following exchange took place:
- Hulkenberg: “Once again, the most unsporting driver of the grid.”
- Magnussen: “Suck my balls man.”
- Hulkenberg: “You did a really good job.”
Hulkenberg had earlier clashed with Magnussen’s teammate Romain Grosjean, the pair clattering into one another on the opening lap, but the stewards did not portion blame after investigating the incident.
Magnussen who saw that incident radioed his team saying, “If you can do what Hulkenberg did to Romain, then it’s going to be a dirty race.”
Speaking to NBC after the media pen altercation, Hulkenberg said, “I congratulated him for being the most unsporting driver of the whole grid once again. When it comes to racing, he’s just nasty. Hard defending is fine but when he does this, it’s just ruthless and sending people into the wall.
“What he did there, opening up the steering, making me run wide, it’s just being an asshole basically. We had really nice words, he said [suck my balls], that was his return, so it’s quite interesting with him,” added Hulkenberg.
Haas team chief Guenther Steiner said of the spat, “I sum it up like: Nico was the guy who destroyed Romain’s race, and then we get a penalty with Kevin.
“Kevin did the right thing and stood his point there, in my opinion. Why would he lift? It’s a tough battle. Nico went to the stewards to ask for a harsher penalty for Kevin, which I think is childish, immature…”
“Whoever has done that? I’m almost speechless. I respect Nico as a driver and as a human being but what happened there — you don’t ask for a more severe penalty for somebody,” added Steiner.
After serving his penalty Magnussen finished 13th, while Hulkenberg retired from the race with one lap to go.