Kevin Magnussen felt positive after Friday’s running at the Red Bull Ring, with the Dane closing the day inside the top ten.
The Haas F1 Team racer had ended the first session in Austria down in twelfth, but he joined team-mate Romain Grosjean inside the top ten in the afternoon, finishing just behind the Frenchman in eighth with a best time of 1:05.559s, just under a second off the pace of Lewis Hamilton up front.
Magnussen felt his VF-18 car was behaving well throughout the day, and it is now important to turn the form from Friday into a positive display during Qualifying on Saturday, with the Dane eager to secure his fifth top ten finish of the year on Sunday.
“It looks like we’re going well,” said Magnussen. “It’s been a good day in terms of testing and getting things done that we had planned to do. The car has behaved as well as we expected. So far, it’s alright – we just need to get it done tomorrow, as well.
“The track is the same as last year. The car is a little bit different, obviously, but it’s been good at many races and it seems like it’s good here, as well. We need to get it all together tomorrow and then have a good qualifying session to get a good position for the race and, hopefully, score points on Sunday.”
The only downside for Magnussen was the unsafe release from the pits by his team, who were subsequently fined €5000 for the incident. He was let go without the right front wheel attached properly, but despite immediately stopping, the team were deemed to have released him in an unsafe manner.
