Magnussen feared engine blow-up for duration of Austrian GP

Kevin Magnussen added to Haas' points tally in Austria, but the Dane feared for almost the entire duration of the race that his Ferrari engine would blow up at any time.

Magnussen crossed the checkered flag P8 at the Red Bull Ring, a performance that complemented teammate Mick Schumacher's impressive sixth place finish.

Haas' aggregate 14 points in the Austrian Grand Prix represented the US outfit's second-best result in its seven-year history in F1.

But Magnussen was on high alert early on in the race after his engine developed a misfire that eventually had him hoping for the best but expecting the worse.

"It was a slight issue that didn’t make me feel so good because I was getting very nervous it would blow up," explained the Dane. "It’s not the first time this year.

"But there was good pace in the car and even with that slight misfire every time I went on throttle it was still fast and I was able to still score points."

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Magnussen explained how he was forced to adapt his driving to the misfire.

“About 15 laps in I started getting it and then it was just every time I went on throttle on very low revs. I had to use one gear lower in every corner, which wasn’t ideal.

“But I was able to finish the race, I was praying to God that it wouldn’t blow up and it didn’t so very happy."

For the second consecutive event, Magnussen was beaten to the chequered flag by Schumacher. The Dane said he opposed little resistance to his teammate when he was overtaken by the latter mid-race.

"The way I see it is if he’s faster we need to work together as a team and I’m not going to block him and slow down the team as a whole," he explained.

"I’m here to help the team. I’m not here to win the world championship right now, that’s not my position, hopefully one day that can come but for now I’m a team player.

"So I’m very happy that we scored double points today and if you had seen me blocking like mad, maybe we wouldn’t have scored both points."

Like Schumacher, Magnussen took a lot of encouragement from the run of points enjoyed by Haas in the last two races.

"It’s not perfect, of course, but it’s been a great couple of weekends, double races with double points for the team," he said.

"This weekend, 14 points, sprint race points and then double points today, it’s kind of perfect for us."

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