After an incredible start to the race, the Haas’ drivers were P7 and P8 on the road after turn three, but that was the best it would get for the American squad. In turn four, Magnussen tried a bold move around the outside of Lewis Hamilton, which ultimately led to contact between the two – with the Dane coming off worse, making a costly trip through the gravel trap. He would eventually finish a disappointing 17th, ahead of only the struggling Williams of Alex Albon.

Speaking after the race to MotorLAT and other selected media, Magnussen explained that he “of course” was frustrated to have a race like that, as he explains that the pace of Haas’s VF-22 was better than some of its rivals that ended up scoring points at the chequered flag:

“Of course. Looks like we had a faster car than a lot of cars that scored points. Of course, we are frustrated, but we’ll sleep on it and then we’ll work to rectify.

“The pace of the car has been good this weekend, despite everyone – most people – bringing upgrades, we weren’t, so we’ll stick to that. Just another positive that we’ll carry over to Monaco.”

Kevin Magnussen, Haas - Image by Hasan Bratic - MotorLAT

Immediately after he made contact with Hamilton on the opening lap, Magnussen said on the radio that the seven-time champion “knew what he was doing” and “rammed” him off. After the race, the Dane explained he didn’t mean anything bad with that message, as it was just frustration “in the heat of the moment”:

“Nothing. It was just in the heat of the moment. You say what you say, then you go and look at it, and it’s often a different story,” he concluded.

As for his team-mate, Mick Schumacher was able to hold on to a top six position for some laps after Carlos Sainz spectacularly spun towards the gravel in turn four, but he would inevitably lose that position again after the Ferrari man recovered himself. Strategy didn’t work for Mick, as he and his team opted for a two-stopper that wasn’t ideal for the incredibly high track temperatures found on Sunday in Barcelona.

“It’s unfortunate, because we had a good start, we had the position, but the tyres just didn’t last as we expected them to. We stayed on plan A and not diverted to something else, which was then, in that case, a three-stop strategy. (We) didn’t quite get it (points), but we’ll analyse it as a team and we’ll come back,” said the German.

Mick Schumacher's priority is to work together with his team to rectify their shortcomings - Image by Hasan Bratic - MotorLAT

Explaining what happened around the time of his first pit stop, when he lost several positions due to undercut from his rivals, Schumacher explains he didn’t have any tyres left on his in lap and that the pit stop wasn’t ideal either, and hopes he can work with his team to avoid these situations in the future:

“The tyres were pretty finished on that last lap (of the first stint), and then I also didn’t get another great pit stop, from what I understand, so it’s stuff that we have to look at to try and understand.

“Maybe. I think we could have still diverted to something else if necessary. You can always push harder. Again, is just something to understand – what went wrong, where we could have improved, how we should have done this race in terms of strategy.

“It was very fun to be up there with everybody, seeing that I had such a good start, and then obviously frustrating that we didn’t have the pace to stay there,” said Schumacher.