After such a positive run up to race day at the Circuit de Monaco, Kevin Magnussen was downbeat after finishing outside the points on Sunday, with his strategy decision to pit when the safety car was deployed going against the Dane.
The Haas F1 Team racer had started the Monaco Grand Prix from an excellent fifth position after showing strong pace throughout Qualifying on Saturday, but fell to sixth behind Renault F1 Team’s Daniel Ricciardo at the start, but then followed the Australian into the pits on lap twelve to switch from the soft to the medium compound of Pirelli tyre.
Unfortunately, a number of drivers did not follow suit and were ahead of both Ricciardo and Magnussen when the race went back to green flag conditions, with enough of them not having the pace to match those who had yet to pit, enabling the likes of Pierre Gasly, Carlos Sainz Jr., Daniil Kvyat, Alexander Albon and Romain Grosjean to jump them all by the time of their own pit stops.
Magnussen also had a moment with Racing Point F1 Team’s Sergio Pérez whilst the two battled over twelfth position, with the Dane earning himself a time penalty from the stewards for cutting the chicane and gaining an advantage, a penalty that relegated him from twelfth at the chequered flag to fourteenth in the final result.
“I don’t really know what happened, it wasn’t the race we were hoping for today,” said Magnussen. “We’ve done a very good job together this weekend. It was a perfect weekend until the race.
“It’s a big shame but we’ll see what went wrong today and why it happened.”
Magnussen admitted he was frustrated by the way the race unfolded, so much so that he was hoping for some kind of mishap to befall him so he could retire from the race so to prevent the long run to the chequered flag.
“I wanted the engine to blow up,” said Magnussen to Motorsport.com. “It’s disappointing to have a result like today when we’ve been so strong all weekend and the team has done an amazing job.
“They provided me with exactly the tools I needed to perform. We’ve just been really good this weekend.
“I feel very sorry for everyone. I don’t want to draw any conclusions over what happened – I just feel sorry for everyone, and I’m very disappointed for myself.”
