Kevin Magnussen was proud of his Haas F1 Team although a little surprised to end up sixth on the grid for the Bahrain Grand Prix, and only 0.005 seconds away from out-qualifying Red Bull Racing’s Max Verstappen.
The Dane put in a strong performance throughout Qualifying at the Sakhir International Circuit, finishing inside the top ten in each of the three sessions, and ended less than nine-tenths of a second behind pole sitter Charles Leclerc.
However, perhaps more impressive was how close he was to the leading Red Bull of Verstappen, and Magnussen hopes to give the Dutchman a hard time on Sunday.
“I’m happy and proud of the team today for delivering the car that I had in qualifying,” said Magnussen, who finished in the same position two weeks ago in Australia. “To be sixth, and only a few thousands of a second from the fastest Red Bull is pretty good, and maybe a little unexpected.
“We were on par with them, and I hope we can give them a hard time in the race.”
Magnussen hopes to have an equally strong day on Sunday, although the long runs during free practice on Saturday were not as good as the Qualifying simulations, which leaves a little bit of doubt in his mind.
“I’m in a good starting position, so that’s the first box ticked, we’ll take it from there,” said the Dane. “Our race runs weren’t as good as our qualifying runs on Friday in practice, but I hope we can change that tomorrow and have a good race.”
