The Dane was understandably pleased with the overtake that led to the scoring of his first season point.
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By making a late-race pass on Yuki Tsunoda of AlphaTauri, Haas driver Kevin Magnussen earned P10 and the final point in the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix. The Dane was understandably pleased with the overtake that led to the scoring of his first season point. From lap 25 onward, he pursued Tsunoda’s rear wing before pulling off the pass with five laps remaining on the inside of the last corner. “It was a good pass. Yuki did a great job to defend and for many laps kept me behind, just put his car in all the right spots to destroy my aero in the crucial points and always getting good exits in the last corner to defend at Turn 1, and I got him eventually,” said Magnussen.
“I’m really happy; I think we made a good step this weekend on the set-up, much better on tyre degradation today than in Bahrain, so we’ve got to be really happy with that.” Magnussen may have been happier with Haas’s turnaround from a pointless performance at the season-opening Bahrain race. Although he expressed excitement for the Australian Grand Prix, which will be held from March 31 to April 2, he acknowledged that there were still uncertainties regarding how well Haas would perform on circuits with higher levels of degradation.
“I feel like we actually made a step forward and I hope that transfers into Melbourne and the coming races,” he said. “We’re going to go back to races that are harder on the surface tarmac-wise, and then we’ll see if we actually made a step forward. But happy about today.”
Sergio Perez has emerged as the biggest threat to his teammate Max Verstappen’s title defence after he won the 2023 Saudi Arabian GP on Sunday. Perez finished P1, followed by his teammate to make it a second successive 1-2 finish for Red Bull, firmly strengthening their grasp on the constructor’s championship title after just two races. Things however might get a bit feisty between Perez and Verstappen, who are separted by just a single point in the drivers’ championship.
“No, I did enjoy the race to be honest. I enjoyed it a lot, especially at the end, just pushing each other with the lap times knowing that he went a tenth faster, tenth slower, tenth slower, and it was all pretty intense. Then we were told to maintain a certain pace, then I was told again to push then to maintain the pace – so it was just a bit all over the place,” said the race winner.
