Watch: Kevin Magnussen's smooth overtake of Logan Sargeant at the 2023 F1 Monaco GP
Haas F1 driver Kevin Magnussen had a Monaco GP to forget as he could not really make a mark throughout the weekend. However, he pulled off one of the moves of the race.
The Dane started the race from P17 but was unable to make any headway at the beginning of the race as he banged wheels with other cars in the opening couple of laps. However, during his first stint on hard tires, Magnussen expertly executed a pass on Williams's Logan Sargeant at Mirabeau to gain a position.
Magnussen used his experience in the streets of the principality and bided his time behind the American but was ruthless in barging in to make up a place on the rookie.
You can watch a video of the overtake below:
In his debrief on Haas' official website, Kevin Magnussen said:
“We tried everything. We tried to do the opposite of everyone and it didn’t work out. Initially, in the dry, it was looking interesting but then when the rain came, I stayed out hoping for a safety car or a red flag but that didn’t happen, of course."
"We ended up last, put the full wets on but we couldn’t get them started at all, so the race was over by then. There are a lot of incentives to take risks when you’re outside the top 10 and that’s what we did today, but it didn’t work out. Next week is another race week.”
"I think our race was over by then anyway” - Kevin Magnussen
In one of the clashes in the race with Red Bull driver Sergio Perez, Kevin Magnussen stated that the car went into anti-stall which caused the clash between the two drivers. He said, as per Motorsportweek:
“I got hit a lot, two or three times I got hit on my diffuser. One other time, I got into an anti-stall at the bus stop, somehow. I hit the kerb there and it went into anti-stall, so I couldn’t react quick enough and Checo drove up the rear end. There was some damage there, but anyway, I think our race was over by then anyway.”
He added:
“Initially it [staying out on the hard tyre] was hope that it would stop and that we could continue and skip the pit stop. A couple of people had already gone for Inters, so if it stopped raining, maybe you can gain a lot there. It was only in the beginning at least, wet in sector two."
"Most of sector one and three was dry so it was looking OK. But then it started raining completely and by that point, we had already lost out a lot.
Hopefully, Haas and Kevin Magnussen can bounce back in the coming races and make the most of their car in the midfield battle.