Magnussen had a strong qualifying, earning fifth, fourth and sixth places across the three sessions, but he acknowledged that the race was likely to be tough, thanks to the tyre temperature issue that have stymied Haas all season.
The Dane lost a couple of places on the first lap but hung on in the points for the first part of the race, enjoying a fraught battle with Pierre Gasly at one stage.
He slipped back after an off-track moment triggered by a brake issue before a virtual safety car gave him a cheap second stop for soft tyres, and thus a chance to catch drivers on older rubber in the latter stages.
He moved into the points on the final lap when George Russell crashed out.
“Super pleased with that,” said Magnussen. “It was hard fight. I don’t think I’ve ever fought so hard for a point. But I really, really wanted it, after the good qualifying, it would have been so disappointing not to get anything out of it.
“It looked tough at one point. Once I had that off in Turn 2, I thought it was game over. My tyres were just done. So we pitted for soft, and it worked really well.
“Pace was good. And I made up a few positions. And then a few people crashed, and I got a point. So I’m glad I worked so hard for that.
Kevin Magnussen, Haas F1 Team, on the grid with engineers
Photo by: Andy Hone / Motorsport Images
“I just tried as hard as I could. I wanted to make sure that there was nothing left out there, and it paid off.”
Asked if the weekend was a boost for his confidence, he said: “I mean, it’s not really about self-confidence. It’s just I work very hard for this.
“And it’s so nice when it pays off. I work out in the gym. And today I worked my ass off in the car. Yeah, it’s nice to get something out of it. At the end of the day we’re competitors, we want to show and get something out of it.”
Magnussen agreed that the team has to ready to take opportunities such as that presented by the VSC, especially with tyres being such a critical issue for the car.
“Yeah, it was good,” he said of the timing. “Of course, we got an opportunity, and we took it. We were ready to capitalise.
“That’s what I always say, we’re going to these races, and we know that the race pace isn’t going to be that good and tyre degradation is not on our side. We’ve just got to be ready to take any opportunity there is. And we did that today. And it paid off.”
