Magnussen reveals 'neck break' on F1 return

Kevin Magnussen has revealed to suffering from a 'neck break' on his return to the cockpit of an F1 car for the first time in 16 months.

Magnussen's shock return to F1 this week as the replacement for the axed Nikita Mazepin has created waves, and the Dane added to the furore by posting the fastest time at the end of the second day of pre-season testing in Bahrain.

Magnussen's leading time of one minute 33.207secs was set in the additional hour of running granted to Haas to make up for the time lost by the delayed arrival of its freight, with conditions optimal.

Magnussen naturally proclaimed it "good to be back in a Formula 1 car" but has also revealed the price paid given the g-forces he would not have experienced since his last outing at the end of the 2020 season.

“So good to be back with the team - I think it went really well," said Magnussen. "We had a good day of testing.

"I spent the first couple of runs getting back up to speed with a Formula 1 car but other than that it felt like I hadn’t been away.

"I could feel my neck at the end of it though - it kind of broke - but that’s expected. I’ll do another day tomorrow, break it even more, and then hopefully get in a little better shape for next week.”

Magnussen's time was at least a positive for Haas which has seemingly endured nothing but negatives since pre-season testing began in Barcelona last month.

A relieved team principal Guenther Steiner said: “It’s been a better day today.

"It started with a few problems in the morning for Mick [Schumacher] and we didn’t get the running we wanted but I think it was worthwhile going through it, even just to get some of the gremlins out of the car.

"In the afternoon, we got out a little bit late because we needed to fix the car and it was quite a good session for Kevin.

"We ran an hour longer than everybody else because we lost the time on the first day but overall, we’re going in the right direction.

"Unfortunately, we just have one day left - I wish we had three!”

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