Kevin Magnussen on “disappointing” Japanese GP: “Not a whole lot to say”

Kevin Magnussen endured a somewhat boring Japanese Grand Prix last weekend, in what was another race without points for the Danish driver.

The Dane rose five places on the opening lap before the race was red-flagged on the second lap due to heavy rainfall at the Suzuka International Racing Course, meaning he was twelfth when proceedings eventually resumed. From the restart nothing really happened for Magnussen, who dropped back to fourteenth but still finished higher than his team-mate, following a poor strategy by the Haas F1 Team.

It means the Dane still hasn’t claimed points since the Austrian Grand Prix, following a underwhelming weekend.

“There’s not a whole lot to say – it was another day with the weather being like this, which is always an opportunity so of course it’s disappointing not to get anything out of it.”

“We put them [the intermediates] on a bit too late” – Mick Schumacher

Mick Schumacher‘s race was somewhat more eventful but ultimately even more catastrophic, as the Americans fitted the German with the Intermediate tyres too late, which resulted in the German finishing last of the running drivers.

Whilst most pitted for Intermediates after ditching their Wet tyres, Haas opted to leave Schumacher out on-track. This actually resulted in Schumacher leading the race for about ten metres, before he was overtaken by Max Verstappen. It became quickly apparent that the gamble wasn’t working, as the twenty-three year-old tumbled down the order. By the time he did pit, he was well behind the pack.

Schumacher recognises that the team pitted him “too late”, but that leading the race momentarily was “something positive”.

“Our car is very strong, especially on inters, but unfortunately we put them on a bit too late. The fact that we were running P3 at some point, and even did our first leading meters in P1 is something positive. Points were up for grabs and we didn’t manage to get them today, but definitely the speed was there.”