Magnussen reveals "massive headache" retirement caused by gearbox 'big bangs'

Kevin Magnussen has revealed he was forced to retire from the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix due to him sustaining "a massive headache" caused by a significant gearbox problem.

Despite attempting to continue, Magnussen opted to call it a day at Imola after 47 laps, in particular as he was not in a position to score any points.

Over the team radio, Magnussen said: "I'm getting a massive headache from all these upshifts. It's like a kick in the head every time."

Asked as to how bad he was feeling and whether he could carry on or if he wanted to retire, he replied: "It's my job isn't it. It's painful man."

A couple of laps later, however, the Dane pulled into the pits.

Explaining the issue, Magnussen said: "We had a problem with the gearbox, and we had that yesterday as well on my fastest lap in qualifying.

"But that problem came back in the race and was there from the first lap. From the race start, I was having slow upshifts. Not only are they slow, it's also like a big bang every time you upshift.

"It seems okay for a couple of laps but then it starts shaking your head crazily and by the end, I'd just got a massive headache.

"I told the team and they were like 'We have nothing to fight for', so they boxed me."

It was an unfortunate end to a race that had also started badly for Magnussen when he was tagged by Ferrari's Sebastian Vettel midway through the first lap that spun him around and sent him to the back of the field.

"I got spun around at the start, and that was the end of it almost," added Magnussen. "I lost so much time getting back on track.

"The pace was really good. We had much better pace than expected, even with those upshifts that were costing half a second per lap. We were much quicker than we expected. [But] Frustrating again."

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