Haas F1 Team’s, Kevin Magnussen, added more points to the tally after a successful weekend at the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix. He earned himself a point in Saturday’s sprint, finishing eighth, and then two more with a ninth-place finish in the race.
Magnussen was pleased with the “decent weekend”, even if the result wasn’t on par with the “high hopes” that came with his fourth-place qualification.
“We scored points again – both yesterday and today – so that’s a good weekend. When we qualified P4, hopes were very high at the beginning, but we’ve got to be realistic as well and getting away with points in both the sprint and the main race, that’s a decent weekend.”
Magnussen benefitted from the eventful opening lap, reaching a peak position of fifth before dropping back down the order as a result of his disadvantageous pit-strategy.
“At the beginning of the race, I was on intermediates and got up to P5 and the pace was pretty good. Then the track dried up and we were a bit late to come in for slicks, so we got undercut by a couple of people. We came out and fought for points – got two today, three points over the weekend – so it was pretty decent.”
The Dane’s points total increased to fifteen, placing him tenth in the Drivers’ standings. He will be looking to be in the mid-field mix once again at the Miami Grand Prix, to continue his trend of points finishes as the season progresses.
“We were hoping we had more pace” – Mick Schumacher
Mick Schumacher had a difficult race in Imola, finishing seventeenth. Having missed out on the opportunity to convert his season-best start into a points finish, he was disappointed by the “unfortunate” result.
Starting tenth, he dropped to the back of the grid on the first-lap after contact with Fernando Alonso caused him to spin out. He struggled to recover from the incident, as he lacked the pace to challenge the cars ahead.
“Unfortunately, I lost our position right at the beginning and then had to recover from there. It was quite difficult, the Williams was very quick in the straights, so no chance for me there to get by.
“We were hoping we had more pace. It was quite unfortunate, but we live and we learn, we try to look ahead and do it better next time.”
Schumacher has yet to score points this year, with a season best of eleventh-place at the Bahrain Grand Prix. Having come across his fair share of bad luck so far this season, he will be aiming to grab the first points of his career in upcoming races.
