Haas' Magnussen: 'Mexico result was as good as a victory'

Kevin Magnussen says eighth place in Sunday's Mexican GP was "like a victory" for Haas after the team's downbeat performance in qualifying.

The US outfit started its race on the back foot after Saturday's qualifying session put both Magnussen and Romain Grosjean at the rear of the field at a venue where Haas knew it would have its work cut out for it.

Both drivers moved up a spot on the grid thanks to penalties handed out to others, and Magnussen was quick off the line and carved way his into the top ten early in the race, where he would remain for the rest of the afternoon.

"That was like a victory, it was incredible, and a great way to reward everyone for their hard work," said Magnussen.

"It was a perfect race. It couldn’t have gone better. We could easily have given up and just thrown the towel into the ring [on Saturday] – it was a very tough day for us all.

• Team Talk - Sunday in Mexico

"Nobody gave up, and everyone knows we’re not the worst team, or meant to be on the last row. We’re meant to be in the points, fighting in the midfield and getting into the top 10.

"We pushed on and I’m very proud of the team for that.

"We’re going to continue to fight. It’s not going to be easy, we can see that, but we’ll continue to push in the Constructors Championship and have fun all the way to the end."

Team mate Romain Grosjean finished where he started, in fifteenth place, having seen his race partly compromised by a five-second time penalty handed to him as a result of a scrap with Fernando Alonso's McLaren.

"The contact with Fernando (Alonso) damaged my car," said the Frenchman.

"I haven’t seen the footage so I don’t know, but it was at turn one and I lost half of the floor. From that point it was almost over. I just tried to hang in there.

"Good job from Kevin and I’m happy for the team."

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