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Haas driver Kevin Magnussen was elated with his fifth-place finish in the 2022 Bahrain GP at Sakhir. The Danish driver felt his team had excellent results along with some luck in the penultimate moments of the race.
Describing his performance after the race in the TV pen, Magnussen said:
“Good... This craziness just continues. I don’t know man. We had a really good race, the car was good all the way through. We had a little more degradation than we had hoped for on the first set but I also got past a few people that were faster than me on the first lap. Then I didn’t really know whether to try and keep them behind or kind of just try and let them go.”
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Claiming his qualifying was crazy after classifying seventh, the Danish driver felt the craziness continued into the race. Elated by his performance, the Haas returnee felt he had a good race, and his car performed exceptionally well throughout the race. With three pitstops in the race, the driver was surprised to be able to surge through the field.
Explaining his performance in detail, Kevin Magnussen said:
“I also locked up a little bit so that first stint maybe wasn’t perfect, but from there even though we pitted earlier than we planned. We extended that second stint on the tire, extended it so to get back on plan. Then had a safety car at the end, kind of put everyone on the same tire but just a sprint race to the end which was intense. Obviously a bit of luck with the two Red Bulls, we’ll take that.”
The safety car after Pierre Gasly’s retirement bunched the entire grid to create a 7-lap sprint race towards the end. According to the Haas driver, although they changed their strategy, their final stint was intense coupled with some luck with the two Red Bull retirements of Max Verstappen and Sergio Perez.
Kevin Magnussen believes 5th place is the maximum result for Haas in Bahrain
Still in disbelief over his result, the Haas driver believes he maximized their points score in Bahrain with a fifth-place finish. Kevin Magnussen was also satisfied with the reliability of the car, with a bit of luck helping him towards the end.
Summarizing his performance, the Haas driver said:
“I don’t think we could have scored for any more points. We maximized the points we could have got. Even a little more with the luck we had with the Red Bulls. Qualifying could have been better but we made it to the end of the race, we got P5. Can't even believe it.”
While the Dane’s result contributed ten points for his team, it is the first time since 2019 that the team has collected points in double digits. Haas scored zero points in 2021 and three points in 2020. With a reliable Ferrari engine, decently devoted cars, and an experienced driver like Kevin Magnussen, the Haas team could see themselves as strong contenders in midfield.
Also Check Out: F1 Standings 2022
