Two weeks ago, Kevin Magnussen was planning for a second season racing in sportscars, but a last-minute call-up to the Haas F1 Team after Nikita Mazepin was released from his contract saw him return to the grid – and now he has a fifth-place finish in his first race back!
The Dane was one of the stars of the weekend at the Bahrain International Circuit and ensured Haas scored their first points since Romain Grosjean scored a ninth-place finish in the 2020 Eifel Grand Prix, while Magnussen scored his first points since that years’ Hungarian Grand Prix.
Magnussen admitted it has been a crazy start to his second spell with Haas as he showed that the team has developed a strong car in the VF-22, and it was pleasing to be able to be best of the rest behind the leading three teams all weekend.
However, he did admit to having some luck to move up from seventh to fifth in the final few laps after the late race retirements of both Oracle Red Bull Racing drivers.
“The craziness just continues,” said Magnussen. “We had a really good race and the car was good all the way through.
“We had a little more degradation than we would’ve hoped for on the first set of tyres, but I also got passed a few people that were faster than me on the first lap and I didn’t really know whether to keep them behind or let them go.
“I also locked up a little bit so maybe it wasn’t perfect, but even though we pitted earlier we then extended the second stint on the same tyre to get back on plan. Then there was a safety car that put everyone on the same tyre and then it was just a sprint race to the end, so it was just intense.
“Obviously, a bit of luck there with the two Red Bull’s but we’ll take that.”
Early Contact with Ocon Compromises Mick Schumacher
Team-mate Mick Schumacher was agonisingly just outside of the points at the end of the race in Bahrain, with the German ending eleventh. However, it was by far his strongest performance in Formula 1 to date.
Schumacher suffered a first lap spin at turn six after being tagged from behind by BWT Alpine F1 Team’s Esteban Ocon, and he was unsure whether the contact caused any damage to his VF-22.
He was running inside the top ten at the late race restart after the safety car caused by Pierre Gasly’s fiery retirement, but a gamble to stay on used soft tyres rather than pitting for fresher rubber did not pay off, and he was swallowed up by the chasing pack over the final few laps.
“With all the circumstances that we had with the spin in Turn 6 after contact – I don’t know how much damage that would’ve brought to the car – it didn’t feel amazing to drive afterwards,” said Schumacher.
“I think that was also represented in the pace we had. Seeing Kevin in P5 means that we have the car to do this, and that I can do the same.
“That also means we’re close to podiums if there’s a crazy weekend, which there usually is in Formula 1, so we should be able to do that.”
