Credits: IMAGO / PanoramiC

The first lap of the Monaco Grand Prix featured a massive crash that took three cars out of the race. Kevin Magnussen attempted an optimistic move on Sergio Perez at Beau Rivage, but with no room on the outside, he ended up colliding with the Mexican. As a result of their collision, they also took Nico Hulkenberg out. While the stewards deemed their collision as a racing incident, Magnussen blamed Perez for the same.

As quoted by Formula Racers’ X (formerly Twitter) handle, Magnussen said, “From my point of view, I had a good part of my front on Perez’s rear. When he went to the wall, I just got pushed into the wall and made contact with him. I trusted he was gonna leave a space, for me, since I was there”.

The collision between Perez and Magnussen resulted in massive damage to the former’s car. Moreover, since the barriers needed extensive repair, the race was eventually red-flagged. It took approximately over half an hour to repair the barriers, and now the race is back underway.

16 cars are now competing, with Alpine’s Esteban Ocon as the other driver who was knocked out of the race. The Frenchman will play no further part after he had an incident of his own with his teammate Pierre Gasly.

Among all the drivers who are knocked out of the race, Nico Hulkenberg was perhaps the most innocent victim.

Nico Hulkenberg believes he was a victim of Kevin Magnussen’s racing incident

After his DNF, Hulkenberg gave an interview but chose to blame neither Perez nor Magnussen for the incident.

Speaking to Sky Sports, the German said,

“It was a typical lap-one racing accident. Two drivers who both didn’t want to bail out and didn’t give enough room on a tight track like Monaco, and I was the unlucky victim there”.

Since the stewards deemed the lap one collision as a racing incident, Kevin Magnussen will get a huge reprieve. The Danish driver currently has 10 penalty points on his license and is just two penalty points away from receiving a race ban. With the stewards not holding him responsible for the lap one incident, he will live to fight another day for now at least.