Magnussen says Haas car 'had half a second in it'

Kevin Magnussen will line up tenth on Sunday's grid in Jeddah, but the Haas driver rued a "broken neck" after qualifying that forced him to leave half a second on the table in Q3.

Magnussen, who unexpectedly returned to F1 in Bahrain following Haas' ousting of Nikita Mazepin, continued to impress this weekend at the wheel of the US outfit's VF-22.

The Dane was spared on Saturday the reliability issues that had undermined his programme the day before, and while Q2 was marred by the heavy crash of his teammate Mick Schumacher, Magnussen successfully made the final top-ten shootout.

But the 29-year-old was his own 'pain in the neck' in the session and reached the limit of his suffering in Q3.

"Honestly, my neck is broken and the last couple of runs I just wasn’t able to drive properly," Magnussen said.

"I just couldn’t hold my head in the corners, then you can’t control the car properly. But as I said, the car had more in it, I’m sure there was a half second in it."

• Read also: Schumacher ruled out of Saudi Arabian GP after huge crash

Had he succeeded in extracting half a second from his VF-22, Magnussen would have been fifth in Saturday's pecking order.

"I wasn’t driving well," he admitted. "I think maybe there was a P5 in the car, there’s only half a second up to P5 and my best lap in Q3 was on used tyres – and not a great lap as I said.

"The team had a P5 in it, but I didn’t."

After qualifying, Magnussen intended on putting himself in the good care of his physiotherapist to prepare himself for Sunday's 50-lap race in which he will be his team's only driver.

"Hopefully I can sort out my neck for tomorrow and get some points," concluded the Haas charger.

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