Kevin Magnussen reckoned that a top-ten finish was potentially on the cards in Brazil before his start-line washout with Alex Albon sent him into retirement for the second consecutive race.
Magnussen and Albon – who had lined up respectively P12 and P13 on the grid – came together on the run down to Interlagos’ first corner after the Williams driver, who had made a blistering fast start, was tagged on his left by the Dane’s teammate Nico Hulkenberg who was sandwiched between the two cars.
The contact pitched Albon into the side of Magnussen’s car, a move that sent both drivers into the barrier on the outside of Turn 1.
The outcome of the start-line commotion was particularly frustrating for the Haas charger. On his way to the grid, on the soft tyre, Magnussen felt that he had a good piece of equipment under him.
“Got a good start,” he explained. “Had a good feeling with the car on the soft tyre on the laps of the grid.
“I was telling my engineer this might be a bit good because I had a really positive feeling in the car. It’s difficult. Unlucky. Hit the wall twice now through no fault of my own. It’s a little bit frustrating.”
Magnussen was nevertheless looking forward to his next race to ward off his bad luck.
“It is what it is, you’ve got to move on to the next race, and the next race is Las Vegas. I look forward to that,” he said.
As for Albon, the Anglo-Thai driver insisted that there was little that he could have done to avoid the havoc.
“I don’t think I could have done anything different,” he contended.
“I was as far right as I could. I think that that Haas on the left was lightly blindsided, it kind of went across a little bit, squeezed in the middle Haas, and that was it really.”
In hindsight, given the retirements of Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc and Mercedes’ George Russell, points were up for grabs for both Williams and Haas which are respectively P7 and P10 in F1’s Constructors’ standings.
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