Magnussen slams "unbelievable" F1 Russian GP runoff penalty

The Haas driver braked too late while defending seventh position from Racing Point's Sergio Perez, and ran across the dome kerbs at Sochi's second corner.

Drivers who miss the kerbs completely were supposed to rejoin the track to the left of two polystyrene markers but, despite attempting to follow the procedure, Magnussen was unable to swerve left to take the first marker due to the angle his car was at.

Magnussen reported the incident over the Haas team radio, explaining that it would have been 'dangerous' to swerve around the marker, but was handed a five-second penalty by stewards.

Speaking after the race, Magnussen said: "This is bullshit.

"We have this Turn 2, which is a crap corner. It's just stupid. Just make it... gravel there, or something.

"I'm not a safety expert, and I never will be, but I think the way it happened was I missed that corner, went through a load of crap off-line on the runoff and lost a hell of a lot of time and got penalised by my own fault.

"The FIA didn't have to do anything because I didn't completely miss [the corner]. It wasn't black and white, and yet they choose to give me a penalty."

The penalty dropped Magnussen from eighth to ninth in the final classification, behind McLaren's Lando Norris.

Speaking on the team radio afterwards, team principal Gunther Steiner said: "If we wouldn't have a stupid idiotic steward, we would be eighth."

Magnussen added it was "unbelievable" that the stewards had elected to punish him when his main focus was on avoiding an accident.

"You had to stop the car and turn very sharp to the left to make both of them," he said.

"I get it if you miss [it], you just go straight completely. But I had so much more speed, that when I got onto the runoff I was carrying way too much speed.

"I was only trying to keep the car under control and aim for those bollards, because I knew I had to take whatever I could.

"Then I lose the position, lost a whole lot of lap time, I have dirt on my tyres for the rest of the laps, so I lose extra amount of lap time and I would have been way better off letting Perez go and stay on the track and go in behind him.

"So already I've been penalised in a natural way, which is what we want it to be.

"We've been told if you miss both of the kerbs you have to take both of the bollards. I did one and half missed, so it's in a grey area.

"So you could say it's a grey area and they had a choice, and they still chose to give me a penalty."