Magnussen: P7 is pole position for us

Kevin Magnussen has relished securing ‘pole position’ in the fight between the midfield Formula 1 teams but concedes he has a few concerns on tyres and strategy going into the Spanish Grand Prix.

The Haas driver beat McLaren’s Fernando Alonso to seventh place in qualifying by less the one-tenth of a second ahead of the Spaniard’s home race to take the top spot behind the Mercedes, Ferrari and Red Bull drivers.

Magnussen feels seventh place is his team’s maximum if the top three teams avoid issues, hailing it as his “pole position” but is wary of a tough race at Circuit de Catalunya.

The Danish driver will start on the unfancied Supersoft tyres having used them to progress into Q3 while he doesn’t feel he can gain any positions on the top teams due to the significant performance deficit to the midfield fighters.

“That’s pole position for us, we don’t really feel like we could have done any better,” Magnussen said. “Unless you are in a Ferrari, Mercedes or Red Bull then this is pole position.

“Even though the temperatures came down I still did my fastest lap in qualifying on a soft. It’s clearly not great to be starting on a Supersoft and I don’t think anybody will be using it tomorrow except for the ones that have to, because it’s not faster. There’s no upside to being on a Supersoft. It wears out faster and it’s slower.

“I don’t think we can fight the Red Bulls. I really feel like I’m on pole position because I’m not really attacking anyone. Of course I’ll take whatever is there if I get an opportunity but I’m not expecting to be fighting anyone in front. It’s a race of trying to maximise your own race and just perform.”

“In my position the most important lap of the race will be lap one. I don’t think I have that much to win but I have a lot to lose.”