Kevin Magnussen is happy with his 'Class B' pole position effort ahead of the Russian Grand Prix which will see him start from fifth on the grid, but despite being the 'best of the rest' the Dane felt a better lap was still possible.
As Red Bull decided not to run both cars in Q2 due to their engine penalties and thus allowed themselves to be knocked out of qualifying, Magnussen was able to take advantage of their omission and pull off a superb lap to start in fifth place for the 53-lap race on Sunday.
Magnussen was also able to beat Force India's Esteban Ocon by over two-tenths of a second, however, despite the gap, he felt he could have done more on his run after clouting the kerb at Turn 2 which led to excess wheelspin.
"I’m happy. It’s best of the rest, again – pole position for us," said the Dane. It’s a good feeling. It was a good lap. It could’ve been better. The only place I messed up was in turn two. I hit the curb and definitely when you do that, you lose time with wheelspin.
"I thought from there it would probably be difficult, but I kept it together and did a good rest of the lap.
"Luckily, it’s not like the Red Bulls qualified into Q3 and then just didn’t run. We have more people running the hypersoft tire – that’s a bit better for us. It would’ve been worse if the Force Indias or both Saubers had started just outside the top-10 with fresh tires. That would’ve been tricky.
With Daniel Ricciardo and Max Verstappen starting at the back of the grid, Magnussen believes it is possible to maintain his fifth position in the race and beat both Red Bull drivers before they catch up to him with their superior pace.
"I’m sure the Red Bulls will come back strong. It’ll be interesting to see how far they get. There’s a good chance they’ll get back up, but the best of the rest is our target."
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