- McLaren
Boullier: Magnussen '100% blameless' for Massa crash
McLaren team principal Eric Boullier insists Felipe Massa was wrong to point the finger of blame for his first-lap crash at Hockenheim at Kevin Magnussen and says the FIA report backs up his opinion.
After the race Massa said today's younger crop of drivers need to take it "a bit easier" and questioned the aggression of Magnussen, even though the rookie received no penalty for the incident. The official report into the incident confirms the race stewards were only investigating Massa's driving, something Boullier thinks the Brazilian needs to consider.
"The stewards report related to Felipe's driving and nothing else," Boullier told journalists including ESPN at a McLaren phone-in on Tuesday. "There was a driving conduct investigation and they decided to impose no penalty on Felipe, which is their prerogative. But the report makes it clear that Kevin was 100% blameless, certainly."
In the end, the FIA decided that Massa had not done anything wrong because he had been "concentrating on car #77 [Valtteri Bottas]. There was no intentional turning in by car #19 [Massa] on car #20 [Magnussen]." Magnussen was not investigated because he had not changed his line away from the grid.
McLaren has recently had an upswing in performance and Boullier is delighted with how his drivers are currently performing.
"So far I am 100% happy with both drivers. Jenson is clearly part of the family, he is fast and helps the team to drive where we want to go. With Kevin, as part of the learning process, he has respected all the tests we needed him to do and he is starting to clearly deliver in terms of his performance and in terms of result. So far I am 100% happy."
© ESPN Sports Media Ltd.
