Kevin Magnussen’s drive to seventh place within the Mexico Metropolis Grand Prix was the very best efficiency he has produced for Haas, based on group principal Ayao Komatsu.
Haas entered Sunday’s race off the again of scoring in 5 straight occasions, together with the Dash in Austin, and lined up with Magnussen seventh on the grid and Nico Hulkenberg tenth. Magnussen didn’t lose a place within the race and saved a fast-charging Oscar Piastri at bay within the closing laps, ending up simply 4 seconds behind sixth-placed Max Verstappen.
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“Singapore, I anticipated him to be robust and we didn’t fairly get there, however then in Austin he was so robust,” Komatsu instructed SiriusXM. “He was robust within the Dash, he was robust within the race, however we didn’t function accurately as a race group within the race so he ought to have scored factors in the primary race as nicely.
“Right here (in Mexico), from FP1, he was robust. And it’s very tough to place a lap collectively right here in qualifying, however when it counted, when the stress was on in Q3, his lap was superb.
“Then to ship this race efficiency, I believe that is the very best race efficiency I’ve seen from Kev. Particularly in that second stint, as soon as Piastri was behind us, his tempo was unbelievable. He was faster than Max!
“We’re taking a look at [the gap to Verstappen]. In fact we’re fully centered on beating Piastri, you don’t get too grasping, but it surely simply doesn’t take away from the truth that it was simply superb. In Sector 1 I bear in mind watching generally Kevin was taking three tenths out of Max, however we had been always telling him the hole to Piastri as a result of we knew Piastri had one thing in reserve, which he did.
“A few laps from the tip he closed at a second a lap, but it surely was simply an unbelievable drive, such consistency. I believe each single lap was like qualifying. It was superb.”
Magnussen himself stated he was proud to have the ability to capitalize on Haas’s enhancing kind Haas is displaying, and with to have the ability to reply to lacking out on factors in the primary race at COTA.
“Solely simply!” Magnussen stated of beating Piastri. “It was very tight and I knew when he was type of [going to arrive] – with 20 laps to go I might do the maths and say ‘OK, it’s going to be a troublesome one’. However the tires simply lasted rather well, so his tires went off greater than mine. He was nonetheless faster than me on the finish, however he simply stopped catching up that quick, so we nearly managed to maintain him at bay.
“I believe it’s good to get the utmost out of this weekend whereas we had the energy and actual competitiveness – it’s good to capitalize on that. We didn’t really feel like we did that final week, we scored factors within the Dash however fully made a blunder within the race, so actually good to return again from that.
“I’m very proud. It’s been some turnaround for this group, I believe there’s a vibrant future forward for Haas.”
