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Magnussen likens Alonso's complaints to Neymar antics

Kevin Magnussen has likened Formula 1 rival Fernando Alonso's complaints on the radio to football star Neymar's perceived play-acting of injuries in the recent World Cup.

Fernando Alonso, McLaren plays football

Photo by: James Gasperotti / Motorsport Images

Kevin Magnussen, Haas F1 Team
Fernando Alonso, McLaren MCL33
Fernando Alonso, McLaren MCL33 and Kevin Magnussen, Haas F1 Team VF-18
Kevin Magnussen, Haas F1 Team VF-18, leads Fernando Alonso, McLaren MCL33, and Sergio Perez, Force India VJM11
Fernando Alonso, McLaren
Fernando Alonso, McLaren MCL33, leads Kevin Magnussen, Haas F1 Team VF-18
Kevin Magnussen, Haas F1 Team
Romain Grosjean, Haas F1 Team, walks the track

Haas driver Magnussen has drawn the ire of Alonso on several occasions in his F1 career, and the Spaniard was incensed with the Dane's driving in two separate sessions of the British Grand Prix weekend.

He admonished Magnussen for "very dangerous driving" after a run-in FP1 and accused the Haas man of forcing him off the track in the race, telling his team: "What I see from Magnussen I never saw in my life."

Asked ahead of the German Grand Prix whether he felt Alonso had a personal issue with him, Magnussen insisted he had "no idea" - and said that there had been "no problem" dealing with Alonso off-track.

He did, however, liken Alonso to Brazil forward Neymar, who was widely accused of 'diving' and feigning injury during football's recently-concluded World Cup tournament.

"He does complain a lot on the radio," Magnussen said of Alonso, "but, I mean, we see it other sports as well.

"Even great athletes like Neymar and stuff, they exaggerate a bit."

Alonso called for stewards to intervene and penalise Magnussen during the Silverstone race – but, having been cleared of wrongdoing in the FP1 run-in, the Haas driver received no sanction for the second incident either.

"I think that the stewards didn't react, or the race director didn't react at all, so I don't need to comment on that one," Magnussen's team boss Gunther Steiner said.

"For sure Fernando is doing his job, he is one of the best drivers and he is very good in all aspects.

"He has been doing it a long time, he knows which button to push, so he tried.

"For sure he is trying to get the most for himself and it didn't work two weekends ago."

Magnussen's British GP had been compromised by an opening-lap collision with fellow Haas driver Romain Grosjean, who had locked up and hit his teammate's VF-18.

Asked how he apportioned blame for the incident, Magnussen said: "I'm not going to sit here and do the blame game, I don't think there's any reason for that.

"I think we move on and the situation is pretty clear, we have a good car, we don't want to waste points so what happened is not to be repeated hopefully.

"We are very open in the team, and close with each other, so we were able to move on pretty quickly. Of course no one is happy about what happened, but it is what it is.

"I still managed to score a few points [in ninth place], but should've scored a lot more. But we just need to be scoring points more regularly with both cars."

Additional reporting by James Roberts and Adam Cooper

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