Magnussen found qualifying crash “quite embarrassing”

Haas Formula 1 driver Kevin Magnussen described his crash in qualifying as “quite embarrassing” and was left to rue the mistake which ruined his Japanese Grand Prix weekend.

Strong winds caused havoc throughout qualifying at Suzuka as Robert Kubica crashed hard at the final corner just moments after Q1 got underway, before Magnussen followed suit shortly after the restart in a similar incident.

Magnussen found qualifying crash “quite embarrassing”

Haas Formula 1 driver Kevin Magnussen described his crash in qualifying as “quite embarrassing” and was left to rue the mistake which ruined his Japanese Grand Prix weekend.

Strong winds caused havoc throughout qualifying at Suzuka as Robert Kubica crashed hard at the final corner just moments after Q1 got underway, before Magnussen followed suit shortly after the restart in a similar incident.

The Dane admitted he was caught out by a gust of wind while exiting the last corner and was simply unable to correct a slide in time.

“I went on the power, I had full throttle, and then suddenly I got wheelspin, and spun around, which was unfortunate and quite embarrassing really - but shit happens,” Magnussen said.

“I just didn’t expect to get such a big gust of wind there right in the tail. Showed everyone what not to do.”

Having started 19th on the grid, Magnussen went on to finish a lowly 17th - ahead of only the Williams duo - and believes a better result would have been possible had he started the race higher up.

“If we had hooked everything up, if I had started up where I should have and got as good a start as I did get, then I would have been in a much better position,” he explained.

“And probably with a better pit stop and strategy, we could have scored some points. It’s frustrating.”

Qualifying and the race was compacted into one day of running following the disruption caused by Typhoon Hagibis on Saturday, which led to the cancellation of final practice and qualifying being postponed.

Asked if he would be in favour of F1 reducing its weekend format, Magnussen replied: “Yeah, absolutely.

“It’s been a really fun day, very interesting and very intense. I’d love to see this be the way forward in the future.”

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