Kevin Magnussen (DEN) Haas VF-22. Emilia Romagna Grand Prix, Saturday 23rd April 2022. Imola, Italy.
Kevin Magnussen says Haas has to be satisfied with claiming points across both Sprint and the grand prix at Imola, despite falling back from fourth on the grid.
Magnussen claimed Haas’ best-ever qualifying result on Friday by putting the VF-22 onto the second row of the grid.
In Sprint Magnussen slipped back to eighth and the race itself he regressed after a prosperous first lap and came home ninth.
The result ensured Magnussen has claimed points in three of the four events to leave Haas eighth in the championship, a point behind AlphaTauri.
“We scored points again – both Saturday and Sunday – so that’s a good weekend,” said Magnussen.
“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.
“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, three points over the weekend – so it was pretty decent.”
While Magnussen captured another top 10 position Mick Schumacher’s wait for points continued after a first-lap clash with Fernando Alonso was followed by a spin later in the race at the chicane.
“Unfortunately, I lost our position right at the beginning and then had to recover from there,” said Schumacher.
“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.”
Keyword: Magnussen: Haas ‘realistic’ despite very high hopes