Mick Schumacher secured his best-ever finish in Formula 1 at the Austrian Grand Prix last weekend, after finishing in a superb sixth-place. Team-mate Kevin Magnussen finished eighth at the Red Bull Ring in what was the Haas F1 Team’s best result since 2018.
Following a frustrating Sprint race on Saturday, Schumacher drove brilliantly on Sunday to make it back-to-back points finishes. The young German demonstrated some excellent racecraft, by running three-a-breast at times on the run up to Turn Three. Schumacher had excellent pace all race and even managed to overtake his team-mate, something which he failed to do in the Sprint.
The opening phase of the race saw Schumacher battle once again with Lewis Hamilton, who he had a great fight with on Saturday. Schumacher’s points finish saw him move up to fifteenth in the Drivers’ Standings, one-place behind Sebastian Vettel.
The German driver was very pleased with his result, as well as being awarded the ‘Driver of the Day’ award by the fans.
“Fighting again with Lewis was fun. I felt a lot different compared to yesterday, obviously knowing that we had to take care of the tyres. Quite soon I felt it wasn’t going to be a one-stop race just because of the way the tires were behaving – the winds were very different and difficult to manage. It was tough out there but it’s another double-points finish again after Silverstone, so everyone in the team can be very happy about the result. Being voted driver of the day as well is great so thank you to everybody.”
“I had a bit of an engine issue all race” – Kevin Magnussen
Magnussen rounded-off an excellent weekend for himself and the team by finishing eighth, a result which meant the Danish driver scored points on both Saturday in the Sprint and on Sunday in the traditional race.
It came close; however, to being a completely different outcome for the Haas driver, who revealed after the race that he’d been suffering from an engine issue throughout Sunday afternoon. Thankfully, Magnussen’s VF22 made it to the end of the Grand Prix, after the Dane “prayed to God” that his engine wouldn’t “blow-up”.
“What a weekend for our team, it’s really been great. Finally, we had a bit of luck, it kind of went our way after those four or five races recently that weren’t good for us. It’s hard not to get a little bit down about it but the last two races we’ve been lucky and we’ve had the pace, especially this weekend.
“I had a bit of an engine issue all race so I was just praying to God that it wouldn’t blow up, which it didn’t, so I’m super thankful for that so I could finish the race without a problem. We just had a great qualifying, a great Sprint and then a great race, so I’m super happy.”
