Kevin Magnussen believes he could have put his Haas car on the third row of the grid in Austria but for a suspension failure in Q1.
Magnussen and team-mate Romain Grosjean looked strong throughout practice and had set their sights on Q3, but the Dane’s afternoon was cut short after his rear suspension sustained irrecoverable damage in the first part of qualifying.
Grosjean went on to qualify in eighth and will start Sunday’s race seventh, promoted by Lewis Hamilton’s grid penalty.
A frustrated Magnussen reckons he could have gone one better, pointing out that he has had the edge over the course of the weekend.
Asked where he could have qualified without the issue, the 24-year old replied: “Just look at where Romain qualified today.
“I’ve been in front of him the whole weekend so in front of him would have been seventh and then Lewis had his penalty so it would have been one place higher.
“It is very annoying and frustrating but that is racing sometimes.”
Magnussen’s Haas appeared to take a hefty whack on the exit kerbs at Turn 3, but he was quick to refute suggestions that this caused the failure.
“I didn’t hit any kerbs,” he said. “I was on the exit kerb of Turn 3 but it doesn’t have those big [yellow kerbs], they are the normal red and white ones.”
However, he has been encouraged by the team’s pace this weekend, putting its impressive perform down to progress from engine supplier Ferrari.
“I didn’t believe we would be that quick and competitive,” he admitted. “I was hoping we would be that competitive and that was our true pace which came as unexpected.
“I don’t know the reasons but it shows very good for Ferrari because this is an engine and a power sensitive circuit and the Ferrari is competitive so it shows well on the engine and proves what the engine is capable of and what it can do.
“Maybe it is also to do with the tyres as we have been able to make them work and maybe other teams didn’t.”
