Haas staff principal Ayao Komatsu heaped reward on Kevin Magnussen after he scored his greatest results of the season thus far in Mexico.
The Haas driver completed seventh, 4 seconds behind Max Verstappen, who needed to serve a pair of 20-second time penalties throughout his pit cease.
The outcome got here one week after Magnussen misplaced a possible factors end at the USA Grand Prix as a result of an additional pit cease the staff blamed on a “communication error.”
Komatsu stated he was “so pleased for Kevin,” who will go away the staff on the finish of the season and doesn’t have a drive for subsequent 12 months but.
“He drove very effectively in Austin, however we couldn’t fairly ship on Sunday, however this weekend he had a tremendous qualifying,” stated Komatsu. “At this time everybody delivered.
“His tempo within the second stint was unbelievable, he was catching Verstappen in his Purple Bull and was ending simply 4 seconds behind. That was in all probability the perfect I’ve seen Kevin drive, I’m so pleased for him.”
Magnussen was additionally fast sufficient to forestall Oscar Piastri from catching him earlier than the top of the race.
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Haas launched an improve for its VF-24 on the earlier spherical and Magnussen stated the automobile’s efficiency was constantly robust in Mexico.
“These weekends when every little thing simply clicks, it’s a very nice feeling,” he instructed the official F1 channel. “This race I used to be in a position to simply push actually onerous and handle the tyres on the identical time. I simply bought them into that candy window the place it simply works.”
“We had an enormous benefit to the opposite midfield vehicles,” he added. “I simply suppose the automobile had that stability the place you had been simply in a position to get that subsequent degree of grip within the tyres and make it final. We put the automobile on-track on Friday and we mainly haven’t modified it in any respect.”
With Nico Hulkenberg ending ninth, Haas have tightened their grip on sixth place within the championship, extending their margin over RB, who failed to attain. Magnussen is optimistic they’ll have the ability to preserve their rivals behind till the top of the 12 months. “It’s not all the time simple to attain these factors so I believe 10 factors with 4 races to go, it’s not snug but, but it surely’s a extremely necessary one,” he stated.
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