Haas F1 Team‘s Kevin Magnussen believes his performance in qualifying for the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix was better than at most races this year, the Dane having qualified fourteenth, two places ahead of his team-mate Romain Grosjean.
“I think we’ve been better here than our average,” said Magnussen. “If you take away the likes of Australia, Austria, Silverstone, this is probably our average position or there about. I don’t think it’s that bad.
“We’ve done well to get back after missing FP1 which, unfortunately, I’ve had to a few times this year. We’ve gotten to a good point with the car and made some good steps since FP2 and through into FP3 and then to here.”
Magnussen praised his team for managing Abu Dhabi’s unique temperature challenges, which left his pleased with his car’s set-up. With some sessions taking place in constant sunshine and the likes of qualifying taking place at dusk, teams must manage differing track temperatures, and Magnussen suggests that his Haas team did a good job.
“We’ve managed things well with the change in temperature with doing FP1 and FP3 in the sun, then FP2 and qualifying in the dark, where track temperature drops a lot and affects the tyres a lot,” said the Dane.
“It’s not an easy one to get right and I didn’t think we did a bad job with it. There’s nothing to lose tomorrow, so we’re going to go for it and give it everything.”
