A confident Kevin Magnussen says his Haas VF-19 is performing well under the flood-lights in Bahrain compared to the daylight conditions.
With Friday’s first free practice for the 2019 Bahrain Grand Prix taking place in unrepresentative conditions, Magnussen found himself a disappointing twelfth, some 2.2seconds off the pace.
But with the second free practice session taking place under the flood-lights in similar conditions to qualifying, Magnussen improved to seventh on the time-sheets, just 1.1seconds adrift.
“I’m reasonably happy with our day,” said Magnussen. “It was good to get FP2 in the darker, cooler conditions. FP1, well, it wasn’t scary, but it was very tricky with the hotter temperatures. It made the tires tricky, and the car was not behaving well, but it was the same for everyone.
“It was good to get into it in FP2, we got to see how the car acted in the conditions that we’ll have in qualifying tomorrow. I was happier in those conditions than in the earlier session, so that’s a positive. The car was behaving much better.”
Friday’s sessions hint to Haas being embroiled in a battle with the Renault F1 Team for fourth best team in Bahrain, with Magnussen so far out-performing team-mate Romain Grosjean.
