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F1 stewards say no penalties for Brazilian GP first-lap crash

Formula 1 stewards have deemed the three-way opening-lap collision that took Kevin Magnussen and Stoffel Vandoorne out of the Brazilian Grand Prix to be a racing incident

The crash occurred when Vandoorne's McLaren was sandwiched between the Haas of Magnussen (on the inside) and Red Bull's Daniel Ricciardo (outside) through the second part of the Senna S on lap one.

Contact between Magnussen's left-front and Vandoorne's right-front corners broke suspension arms on each car.

Ricciardo was spun across the bows of both but escaped with a cut tyre, pitted under the safety car and then charged through to sixth.

The crash was investigated after the race, before the officials ruled no action was necessary.

"From my side, we were three-wide through the corner," said Magnussen.

"There was contact with Vandoorne who then had contact with Ricciardo.

"I broke my front suspension, so it wasn't the best.

"If I'd realised earlier that Ricciardo was on the outside of Vandoorne, then perhaps I'd have given more room, but by the time I saw Ricciardo it was too late. I'd already carried the speed."

Ricciardo added: "Into Turn 2 I knew it was going to be tight, but I thought it was a good chance from the start to overtake a bunch of cars, so I tried the outside - I was holding on, holding on, and then I felt a hit.

"Obviously I was worried that I had damage, I think the tyre had a cut, so we came into the pit to change that."

Vandoorne said his early exit was particularly painful given he had made an excellent start.

"I had a very good launch, almost straight past the Force India and the Haas," he said.

"It was very tight with Esteban [Ocon] and with Romain [Grosjean], nearly avoiding an accident there. We had a good first corner and then it bunched up.

"Unfortunately, I got squeezed in Turn 2. We were in the middle of a sandwich and there was nowhere to go for me. I was just a passenger.

"We had contact and that was an unfortunate end to our race."

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