Kevin Magnussen felt a little justice after minimising the impact of a “bulls**t” penalty at the Russian Grand Prix.
The Dane gained massively to sit P6 having pitted under the Virtual Safety Car in the Haas but would slip back to eighth in the final stint.
When battling Sergio Perez though, Magnussen went wide at Turn 2 and didn’t drive the correct side of the bollard earning himself a five-second penalty.
“This is bulls**t,” he told reporters. “We have this Turn 2, which is a crap corner, it’s just stupid, just put gravel there or something.
“I’m not a safety expert and never will be, but I think the way it happened today was I missed that corner, went through a load of crap offline on the run-off, lost a hell of a lot of time and got penalised by my own fault.
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“The FIA didn’t have to do anything. it wasn’t black and white, yet they choose to give me a penalty.
“I’m sure they will see it after, I have a feeling that they’ve made a mistake and that they’re going to see that and do a better job next time.”
Having already seen Romain Grosjean eliminated at Turn 4 on the opening lap, costing Haas one opportunity at points, the American outfit responded by giving Magnussen everything to avoid losing another.
“I got told I had that penalty, they said we need everything for you now, they gave me maximum engine power, used way more than we should have,” he explained.
“They timed it perfectly so I could use all my energy and on top of that I had to do six qualifying laps and I absolutely nailed all of them.
“I obviously had the car to do it as well, everything was perfect for that scenario.”
As a result, Magnussen only dropped behind Lando Norris as he went from P8 to P9, giving Haas their first points since Hockenheim.