Magnussen reflects on ‘worst race we’ve had in a while’ in Belgium as Hulkenberg urges Haas to ‘forget this weekend’

In terms of whether preparing for a dry set-up after qualifying may have contributed to the issues, Magnussen responded: “I don’t think it was that, we just kind of did the best we could for the car in broad terms. We didn’t focus specifically on the race.

“Actually what we thought would be best for quali was probably also going to be best for the race, so we didn’t really have any compromise – we were just not fast enough.

5 Winners and 5 Losers from Belgium – Who ended the first half of the year on a high?

“This track, we thought it was going to be good for us, but we’ve been surprised many times and this is the worst race we’ve had in a while so, yeah, looking forward to the summer break. I think everyone is, and then coming back to more races where we’ll score some more points.”

The event did not fare much better for Hulkenberg, who – like Magnussen – had exited Saturday’s qualifying in Q1 and started from down in P16 on the grid. Making an early pit stop failed to pay off for the German and he ultimately crossed the line in last place.