Kevin Magnussen was left bamboozled by the pace deficit he has faced this weekend the Marina Bay Street Circuit to team-mate Romain Grosjean, with the Dane finding himself eliminated at the first hurdle in Qualifying on Saturday whilst the Frenchman made it all the way into Q3.
Magnussen has been off the pace of his Haas F1 Team team-mate for much of proceedings this weekend in Singapore, and whereas Grosjean set a 1:38.685 to comfortably advance into Q2, his time of 1:39.644 was not quick enough, with the Dane missing out by 0.030 seconds to Red Bull Toro Rosso Honda’s Pierre Gasly.
The twenty-five-year-old admits he has no real answer to why he is so far away from the pace of his team-mate this weekend in Singapore, not just in Qualifying but also all the way through free practice, and after a run of six consecutive top ten starts, he has now failed to advance into Q3 on two consecutive race weekends.
“It’s not only been in qualifying, I’ve been missing the pace to my team-mate,” said Magnussen, who will share row eight with Gasly on Sunday. “It’s really strange. I don’t really have any answers as to why I’m suddenly a second off the pace.
“It feels like I just don’t have the grip to go that fast. When you have a car that is somewhat well balanced, then it can only be overall lack of grip. I don’t really know why. It’s frustrating.
“I hope to find some answers as we look into it.”
