Kevin Magnussen could not have driven any better on his way to finishing eighth in the Mexican Grand Prix, according to the Haas Formula One team.
Magnussen and teammate Romain Grosjean were the slowest drivers in what turned out to be a tricky qualifying session for Haas on Saturday, but both were bumped up the order when grid penalties for other drivers were applied ahead of the race.
After making a quick start and having successfully negotiated first-lap incidents, Magnussen found himself running in the points during the early stages of Sunday's race. Despite being passed by the recovering Sebastian Vettel at mid-distance, Magnussen profited from the retirements of Nico Hulkenberg and Daniel Ricciardo to gain a further two positions, before holding off Lewis Hamilton and Fernando Alonso in the closing stages.
When asked what he would score Magnussen's drive, Haas team principal Guenther Steiner replied: "Ten out of ten. He couldn't do any more, with our car, to keep Hamilton and Alonso behind. That is the highlight of it but all race he didn't put a foot wrong.
"We didn't luck into it, we earned it, we were in the right place at the right time obviously but if the opportunity is given he could go the speed... his times were very respectable so it wasn't like we got lucky. It was a fantastic drive.
"It's a very big achievement. No one gave up -- starting with the driver who didn't give up. If you go to the start of an F1 race as a beaten man, you will never get points. We got an opportunity given to us and we took it. He did a fantastic job. You can't do much better than that."
Magnussen said his team's ability to bounce back from its qualifying disappointment made the result feel like a victory.
"It was a perfect race. It couldn't have gone better," Magnussen explained. "We could easily have given up and just thrown the towel into the ring after qualifying -- Saturday was a very tough day for us all. That was like a victory. It was incredible, and a great way to reward everyone for their hard work.
"Nobody gave up, and everyone knows we're not the worst team, or meant to be on the last row. We're meant to be in the points, fighting in the midfield and getting into the top ten. We pushed on and I'm very proud of the team for that."
Following a nightmare home race at the U.S. Grand Prix, Haas has moved to within a point of regaining seventh place in the constructors' standings from Renault, after the French manufacturer suffered a double retirement in Mexico.
"We're going to continue to fight," Magnussen added. "It's not going to be easy, we can see that, but we'll continue to push in the constructors championship and have fun all the way to the end."