F1: Magnussen to use spare chassis at Monza

Kevin Magnussen will use Renault's spare Formula 1 chassis for this weekend's Italian Grand Prix following his huge crash in Belgium.

The Dane suffered a heavily-bruised left ankle when he lost control at the top of Eau Rouge before hurtling into a tire wall on the opposite side of the track at Raidillon.

As Spa and Monza are on back-to-back weekends, Renault made the decision to swap Magnussen to a spare RS16 and send out another chassis as a back-up for this weekend's race.

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"The accident was clearly sizeable and the damage sustained is too great to use the car for Italy," said Renault technical director Nick Chester. "The current spare will become Kevin's car in Monza and we will take another chassis out as a spare."

Renault said on Tuesday that Magnussen had passed further medical tests that confirmed he should be fit to compete in Sunday's race. Magnussen has since said he is "working with my physio to keep fit" and by the time he has a final routine check with the FIA on Thursday "it will be fine".

Chester added Renault was unable to run new bodywork at Spa because of the unusually hot conditions. Although the team's focus has shifted to 2017, he said there would be a few small upgrades added to the car in the upcoming races.

"For the second part of the year we will have small updates that were planned as part of the usual development cycle at the start of the season," Chester said. "Unfortunately we didn't run our new bodywork in Spa as it was too hot. But we have some cooling modifications and minor aero updates and possibly some mechanical changes coming through shortly.

"Really, it's now about getting the most from the package we have in hand."

Originally on Autosport.com