Kevin Magnussen revealed details of his long and "sketchy" journey back to the pits after his crash at the Brazilian Grand Prix.
A race weekend which began with the Dane's first career pole position ended in disaster for the Haas driver. In a strong position to score a good amount of points, Magnussen's race lasted for less than a minute before he was spun around by Daniel Ricciardo.
Both drivers were taken out of the race in the collision. The medical car stopped to check on both drivers, but there was only room to ferry one of them back to the pits – Ricciardo hopped in, leaving Magnussen somewhat stranded in the infield section of the circuit.
It took the whole of the rest of the race for him to make it back on foot –which included him having to walk through some spectator areas. Describing the experience, he told Autosport : "It was crazy. I don't know what went on, but it was the most dangerous thing I did all weekend, despite all the driving.
"For whatever reason, I didn't catch a ride back to the pits. Daniel took me out of the race and then jumped in the safety car and took my ride back to the pits. And then I was left at the side of the track the whole race. I can survive that, that's okay. Then, I tried to speak to the marshals, but they didn't speak a word of English, none at all.
"After the race, I was kind of waiting for someone to come and pick me up or something, and the marshals started leaving. And then I was like, what do I do? I ended up by a fence that I couldn't really see a way around. Of course, I could have walked the whole track and go around to the start finish, but there were all the fans.
"Then some of the marshals realised that I was in trouble and cut a hole in the fence and lifted me through, which was kind of sketchy. The marshals took good care of me [among the fans] but it could have been bad, I guess. I am glad I wasn't Lewis Hamilton at Zandvoort. That would have been really sketchy!"
On a more serious note, he added: "[The race organisers] apologised and stuff, but I mean, it's a pretty weird situation. Just come and pick me up – how hard can it be? It was surreal. I hope that doesn't happen again."
For his role in the collision, Ricciardo was hit with a penalty by the stewards. But because he was already out of the race at Interlagos, a three-place grid penalty will instead be served at the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix this weekend – which may prove to be his final race in F1.
