After being off the pace in Qualifying for the Mexican Grand Prix, Kevin Magnussen turned the weekend around on Sunday, and claimed an excellent eighth place finish for the Haas F1 Team at the Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez.
Neither Magnussen nor team-mate Romain Grosjean were able to make it through to Q2 on Saturday, and even qualified behind the two Sauber F1 Team drivers, but the Dane was able to avoid the first lap clashes and stay out of trouble as other’s pitted early with damage, to run inside the points, where he would remain until the chequered flag.
Magnussen lost one position to the recovering Sebastian Vettel to run eighth, and he was able to withstand the pressure from Fernando Alonso and Lewis Hamilton in the final laps to claim four points against all the odds in Mexico.
“That was like a victory,” said Magnussen. “It was incredible, and a great way to reward everyone for their hard work. It was a perfect race. It couldn’t have gone better.
“We could easily have given up and just thrown the towel into the ring yesterday – it was a very tough day for us all. Nobody gave up, and everyone knows we’re not the worst team, or meant to be on the last row. We’re meant to be in the points, fighting in the midfield and getting into the top-10.
“We pushed on and I’m very proud of the team for that. We’re going to continue to fight. It’s not going to be easy, we can see that, but we’ll continue to push in the constructors championship and have fun all the way to the end.”
