Kevin Magnussen has praised Haas for the floor upgrade it brought to the Miami Grand Prix, asserting it assisted his strong qualifying result on Saturday.
Magnussen will start Sunday’s race from fourth on the grid, sharing the second row with Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz.
The session came to a premature end when Charles Leclerc brought out a red flag following a spin into the wall at Turn 7.
It ensured that no other driver could improve on their final attempts and solidified Magnussen’s P4 starting position.
“We put an upgrade on the car,” he said after the session when asked what changed for the weekend. “We’ve got a new floor this weekend.
“That seems to have really helped. You know, track-specific. I think our car works a little bit better here and we got a bit lucky.”
Earlier this weekend, Magnussen outlined that the new floor introduced marked a change from Haas’ previous development schedule, as it is now able to deliver frequent minor upgrades alongside major new parts that are spread out over time.
Although he admits that he got lucky with the timing of the red flag, the Dane says that the car has been finely tuned all weekend.
“I think this weekend, we’ve just been strong consistently,” he said. “And not only in terms of putting in lap times, and if you look at the results from each session it’s so good.
“But just the feeling was there from the very beginning. We put the car on track and it worked. We haven’t really touched it, a little bit tweaks. And I think that’s been really good.
“And then we brought an upgrade that worked, so yeah, happy P4 tomorrow, and hopefully we can finish it off and score some points.”
However, Magnussen’s qualifying session could’ve ended much earlier as he had a close call with Hamilton during the outing.
Hamilton was forced to take evasive action in the final sector as he closed up on a slow-moving Magnussen.
The stewards investigated the incident but opted against taking action.
“Me and Lewis were both on a slow lap,” he said. “I was starting another lap. He was pitting.
“So I don’t quite understand what happened. I think he was a little bit under pressure timewise to get in to start this second run. So he was rushing in and I was starting a new lap.”
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