Magnussen set for pit lane start after shunt

McLaren has confirmed that Kevin Magnussen is likely to start from the pit lane following his crash in qualifying for the Hungarian Grand Prix.

Having progressed through to Q3, Magnussen was on slick tyres approaching Turn 1 as rain started to fall early in the session and he slid off the track at high speed, damaging the car against the tyre barrier. Racing director Eric Boullier said the damage appeared severe enough to require a chassis change which would mean a pit lane start.

"I think the chassis and gearbox have to be changed," Boullier said. "We are just waiting for final clearance from the team but that's what we expect. Which means obviously we will start from the pit lane."

Magnussen himself was pretty calm about the incident, saying he had been caught out by how dry the track was elsewhere.

"It was completely dry at the last corner until the straight, so I braked a little bit early - like 20 metres - and it was just wet," Magnussen said. "I locked up and didn't stop really. Unfortunate."

Team-mate Jenson Button was following Magnussen on track and said he was pleased there were no injuries as a result.

"I think a lot of us were surprised by the lack of grip," Button said. "The problem is here you come over the start/finish line - over the rise - and then it drops down a little bit in to Turn 1. You could see as soon as you started dropping down that it was a little bit different but that's very close to the braking point.

"I think we all tried to brake earlier but the problem is when most of the circuit is dry it's very difficult to stop yourself from trying to brake late. If you brake a little bit early you've lost yourself half a second and it's a massive amount in Q3 so it's a real tricky balance.

"I was the first car on the scene when I saw Kevin locked up and going straight on and it looked like it stopped very quickly. It just shows you in qualifying we're on the limit of grip levels always and these cars stop very quickly, but as soon as you take away a slight percentage in grip suddenly we're in the barriers and it hits hard. So it is never nice to see a shunt like that, it was good to hear immediately that Kevin was OK."