Magnussen’s eighth place ‘like a victory’
KEVIN MAGNUSSEN DESCRIBED his eighth place as“like a victory” at a circuit that Haas team principal Gunther Steiner said was one of the squad’s worst scenarios.
Magnussen and team-mate Romain Grosjean were the slowest drivers in qualifying, with Magnussen starting 14th, thanks to five drivers being given grid penalties. He ran 12th at the end of the first lap after passing Pascal Wehrlein and Lewis Hamilton, then moved to ninth with Sebastian Vettel’s early stop, Carlos Sainz Jr’s spin and Felipe Massa’s puncture.
He gained a further two positions as a result of the retirements of Nico Hulkenberg and Daniel Ricciardo, with the recovering Vettel passing him at half-distance.
He had Fernando Alonso chasing him for much of the rest of the race, then held off Hamilton on the final lap to secure his fifth points position of the season.
“You can hope all you want but nobody would expect that,”said Magnussen.“we didn’t have the pace and we qualified last. I had a decent start, then good pace compared to qualifying. I knew one Ferrari and one Mercedes were behind me and they were going to get back, but only the Ferrari came through.”
Grosjean had a more difficult race, finishing 15th and last. He sustained bodywork damage in a clash with Fernando Alonso at Turn 1, claiming to have lost“half the floor”. Stewards took no action over the incident.
He was also hit with a five-second penalty for gaining an unfair advantage by leaving the track at the Turn 13 hairpin in the stadium and rejoining after Turn 14.