Kevin Magnussen Confesses to Forgetting the Most Important Rule of Racing Amid Career-High Moment at Interlagos

At the start of 2022, Kevin Magnussen would have scoffed at the thought that he will rejoin Haas this season and get a pole position. Yet such has been a crazy turn of events for the Dane, as he took pole position at Interlagos. Although life kept being kind to him even more, as Magnussen led the sprint race on Saturday, which was a rare experience for the Haas driver.

Despite having faster cars behind him, Kevin got a good start and led the race for 2 laps before getting passed by Max Verstappen.

In the post-race interview, Magnussen expressed his feelings on having led a race after a long time. He said, “I forgot to really enjoy it, I was looking after my tires and trying to get into the rhythm, so I didn’t really think about it.” 

He mentioned that he knew faster cars behind him will overtake his VF-22.

He continued, “My battle was P7, P8, around there, so I was trying to look after my tires. I knew these guys behind would overtake [me], and I just tried to lose as little time as possible in order to finish as high up as possible.”

The Haas driver hoped to finish best of the rest in 7th. He added, “It almost went as well as we could have hoped for. The pace wasn’t quite good enough to keep Norris behind, he was a bit too fast to keep behind. But we still got a point out of it, led a couple of laps, and started from pole position for the first time which was great.”

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With Magnussen not able to enjoy his moment at the front of the pack, it shows us how focused F1 drivers have to be while racing.

Haas and Kevin Magnussen – An Unexpected 2022 Roller Coaster

Haas called up Magnussen at the last minute in Bahrain during Pre-season testing. With a week to go for the first race, they asked him to get up to speed. Although Kevin did more than that and finished an amazing P5 in the Bahrain GP.

Since those early regular points finishes, Haas dropped the pace to the rest of the field. Even Magnussen was having first-lap incidents and not getting points. They had some good performances at Austria and Silverstone. Although Brazil is potentially the highlight of Haas’ season.

Haas is currently P8 in the Constructor’s standings just 2 points ahead of AlphaTauri. Team boss Guenther Steiner feels they did their best as Mick Schumacher gained 8 places in the sprint to finish P12. The American outfit would love to end the Brazil weekend with a strong performance.

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The Brazil pole is an iconic moment for Guenther’s boys. Yet Haas would prefer to finish the season on a high and seal that 8th place. As the additional prize money would really help them to develop a better car for 2023.

What do you think? Can Haas fight higher-up in the mid-field next year?