MAGNUSSEN SCORES AGAIN FOR HAAS

Kevin Magnussen came away with points for Haas in both Imola races last weekend, but went backwards in each event.

He qualified fourth, albeit after causing one of five red flags in qualifying when he spun off at Acque Minerali. He and team-mate Mick Schumacher were the only drivers to run medium tyres in the sprint race, where Magnussen was overcome by four soft-shod rivals, having been in the thick of the action with the Mclarens into Tamburello at the start. He also picked up a blackand-white-flag warning for weaving in front of Sergio

Perez exiting the sequence.

In the grand prix, Magnussen made better initial progress, but couldn’t hang onto the fifth place he inherited after Carlos Sainz and Daniel Ricciardo tangled. George Russell hunted him down in the Mercedes, getting past with an unexpected move into the Variante Alta. Magnussen was then jumped by Sebastian Vettel’s undercut stop at the switch to slick tyres and came home ninth between the Aston Martins, the last unlapped runner.

Schumacher had passed

Vettel late in the sprint to claim 10th on the GP grid, but a slide exiting Tamburello on that race’s opening lap put him on the grass and towards the back, where he remained. As he slid, Schumacher’s left-rear clipped Fernando Alonso’s right sidepod, which eventually blew off just as Lewis Hamilton was passing the Alpine for 11th. Alonso was already slowed by the additional damage to his floor from the first-lap clash.