Kevin Magnussen attempted to make late-race gains for a second consecutive weekend but was unable to better seventeenth in the Mexican Grand Prix as the Supersoft tyre did not give him the advantage he was hoping for in the final stint.
The Renault Sport Formula 1 Team racer had started fourteenth on the grid at the Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez but admitted to struggling with his tyres during the whole race, regardless on what compound he was using, and it meant that he was unable to fight further up the order.
Magnussen did at least gain one position at the chequered flag, when, having finished eighteenth on the road, a penalty for Daniil Kvyat promoted him to seventeenth, albeit by just 0.006 seconds.
“Last weekend a late stint on the super soft tyres worked really well for us but today it wasn’t the same story,” said a frustrated Magnussen after the race. “We just didn’t seem to have the outright pace we needed on any of the tyres we used.
“It was a frustrating race for me. My first set of Soft tyres dropped away as we expected but then we didn’t seem to be able to maintain the pace on the Medium tyres so we changed strategy to the Supersofts, but by then we were too far behind. I’m hoping that we can have a much better race in Brazil.”
