“Shit, Viking comeback. Shit, great,” Günther Steiner reacts to Kevin Magnussen’s fifth place at the Bahrain GP » FirstSportz

American racing team Haas has done the unthinkable with the recent F1 returnee in Bahrain Kevin Magussen an amazing fifth place finish at the Bahrain Grand Prix on Sunday. It’s been just over a week since the Danish driver returned to F1 after a retirement in 2020. He had an excellent qualifying result on Saturday when he finished P7. The retirement of the two Red Bull cars in the closing stages of the Bahrain GP helped his situation somewhat.

“This madness just goes on” said Kevin Magnussen. “We had a really good race, the car was good throughout – we had a bit more degradation in the first set than we had hoped [of tyres]. The 29-year-old also mentioned how surprising it was for him to overtake some riders who were visibly quicker than him.

After the exciting end of the Bahrain GP, ​​Team Principal von Haas Gunther Steiner was heard on the team radio saying “Kevin, that was a bloody Viking comeback. Damn great, I can’t believe it!”.

Günther Steiner on the team radio:

“Kevin, that was a bloody Viking comeback. Damn great, I can’t believe it!”

— FormulaRacers (@formularacers_) March 20, 2022

Kevin Magnussen remains down to earth in his assessment of the midfield struggle

Although Kevin Magnussen showed plenty of composure in Haas’ VF-22 and even went up against the two Mercedes W13s on the grid on Sunday, Magnussen knows that Gene Haas’ racing team must be a priority to stay at the top of the grid this season midfield.

“We know that we were lucky today with the two Red Bulls (both of whom were eliminated). If we can finish P7 in Jeddah then it will be the same as today. We were just lucky today to get four more points than we should have.” added the recent F1 returnee.

In the early stages of the race, Magnussen showed signs of carelessness, locking up a few times entering Turn 1 and allowing other drivers to overtake with easier maneuvers than they should have been. He went on to say that he chose to push himself too hard, which turned out to be a poor choice.

Also read: “It was a rollercoaster ride,” Kevin Magnussen recalls on the journey back to Formula 1 after the breath-taking qualifying session