Luck was on Kevin Magnussen’s side as he returned to the points for the first time in 10 rounds at the Singapore Grand Prix.
But the Haas driver said he and the team had worked hard to equal his best result of the season so far with 10th place, which he inherited on the final lap when George Russell crashed out.Magnussen qualified a strong sixth. But he lost two places on lap one and was running in ninth when he pitted for the first time on lap 20 of 62.
After running off-track at turns one and seven – the latter while fighting with Pierre Gasly – Magnussen was down to 16th by lap 36.
“I thought it was completely game over once I got passed by Pierre Gasly and the McLaren,” Magnussen admitted. “I had a brake problem, and I went wide at turn two, went off the track and came back so I thought it was game over then.”
Having pitted under the Virtual Safety Car for a set of soft tyres, Magnussen was 14th with five laps to go. But a points finish began to materialise as Zhou Guanyu fell back with tyre trouble and Alex Albon was hit by Sergio Perez.
Magnussen then successfully passed Haas team mate Nico Hulkenberg – despite running off-track while doing so – to take 11th. Russell’s last-lap demise handed him the final point – the first for Haas in a grand prix since the Miami round in May.
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“When the Safety Car came, I pitted and had really good pace on the soft tyre and came up, and then got lucky when Russell hit the wall and gave me the point,” said Magnussen. “It’s very satisfying for me personally, it’s the third grand prix this year for me in P10 – I’m earning those points each time.”
It has been a lean season for Magnussen and Haas, who plan to bring a major upgrade for their VF-23 at the United States Grand Prix next month.
“I’ve really had a season where I’ve had to battle and work hard on things,” said Magnussen. “We pulled this one out of the hat, but we don’t expect the same opportunity on the upcoming tracks until we get the upgrade.”
He said he was “super pleased” to get his third point of 2023.
“It was a hard fight. I don’t think I’ve ever fought so hard for a point, but I really, really wanted it. After the good qualifying it would have been so disappointing not to get anything out of it.
“It looked tough at one point. Once I had that off in turn one-two I thought it was game over. My tyres were just done. So we pitted for soft and it worked really well. The pace was good. I know we made up a few positions and then a few people crashed and I got a point, so I’m glad I worked so hard for that.”
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“I just tried as hard as I could,” he added. “I wanted to make sure that there was nothing left out there, and it paid off.”
He admitted the team “got an opportunity” due to Russell’s retirement, but said it was important they had been ready to take advantage of that chance.
“We were ready to capitalise, and that’s what I always say. We go into these races and we know that the race pace isn’t going to be that good and tyre degradation is not on our side. We’ve just got to be ready to take any opportunity there is and we did that today and it paid off.”
With such results hard to come by for Haas this year, Magnussen said it was important to get a reward and said he was “proud of everyone” in the team.
“I work very hard for this and it’s so nice when it pays off. I work hard in the gym, and today I worked my ass off in the car. It’s nice to get something out of it. At the end of the day, we’re competitors and we want to show them what we can do and get something out of it.”
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2023 Singapore Grand Prix
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Coventry Climax
19th September 2023, 12:20
So there was another off track pass that wasn’t investigated and penalised?
And tenth place was actually Hulkenbergs? Not that it matters for Haas.
BasCB (@bascb)
19th September 2023, 15:17
A bit of a typical Magnussen race, although this time he did not pick up any penalties. Overall this was the kind of race where he got to race a bit and it even paid off in the end.
reggie747
19th September 2023, 16:18
He needs to get out of the game, he’s passed it and is holding some other worthy driver out of a seat.
Kringle
19th September 2023, 17:56
I respectfully disagree, Haas is alongside RedBull as the least nurturing environments. A young gun would sink within twelve months.