This weekend’s sprint format means Magnussen will not necessarily be at the front of the grid for Sunday’s grand prix. He will start at the front for Saturday’s 24 laps and will certainly struggle to hold off second-placed Max Verstappen. However, it was an awesome moment for the Danish driver. Departed from Haas at the end of 2020, Magnussen was recalled by the team at the start of this season to replace Russian driver Nikita Mazepin following the invasion of Ukraine. Magnussen climbed as if he was never far away and after 139 meetings he finally has a pole position. He and the team celebrated with gleeful abandon as Haas also won their first since entering the sport in 2016. They have 143 races under their belt and this moment will live long in the memory, finally ending their record for the longest run as a manufacturer in F1 without claiming pole. It was worth it for all that mother nature played her part. Magnussen had already done admirably to get his Haas into Q3 and then took his chance. The team put him first at the start of the final qualifying session in wet conditions with more heavy rain threatening. His team suggested he pit to wait it out, but he instead decided to bide his time anyway. Sparks are flying as Kevin Magnussen chases pole position in Sao Paulo. Photo: Antonin Vincent/DPPI/Shutterstock It was a bold decision and Magnussen executed it brilliantly. Eight other cars were also out at that point, all on the slick tires. But Magnussen was the best of them, and just one minute after setting their times, George Russell dropped out, crashed his Mercedes into the gravel and the session was red-flagged. When it started again, the rain was falling and Magnussen’s time could not be improved. “I’ve never felt like this in my life,” she said. “I don’t know what to say, the team put me on the right path at the right time. It is incredible. [Tomorrow] it’s Maximum attack, let’s go for something funny.” It was a special moment for K-Mag, as he’s known, who was almost in tears of joy afterwards and celebrated with Viking-like enthusiasm by jumping on his car and then hugging team leader Guenther Steiner. “It wasn’t luck, the driver deserved it, the team,” Steiner said. “Kevin put in a lap when he needed to. When it’s raining soup, you have to have a spoon and we got the spoon today.” Russell was fortunate in that, despite retiring, he retains the third place he held at that point, with team-mate Lewis Hamilton in eighth. Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz was fifth but will receive a five-place penalty in Sunday’s race due to an engine change. Lando Norris was fourth for McLaren, Esteban Ocon and Fernando Alonso sixth and seventh for Alpine. Sergio Pérez was ninth for Red Bull and Charles Leclerc tenth for Ferrari.
