Magnussen says Haas' pace in Bahrain was "hopeless"

The Dane had just missed out on pipping Red Bull's Max Verstappen for fifth on the grid at Sakhir as Haas carried over the strong form it has shown in the season opener in Australia.

But hopes of another good points haul quickly evaporated as he fell down the order and struggled for grip throughout the grand prix, eventually coming home a disappointing 13th.

Speaking afterwards, Magnussen said that the turnaround in pace from Saturday from Sunday was a concern.

"The car just didn't have pace," he said. "We were just hopeless all the way from the beginning to the end.

"On the straights as well, so no chance to defend from anyone. It was just a pretty hopeless race.

"We were so good in qualifying so the car has to be good, but something wasn't right and we need to work really hard to try and understand what went wrong.

"We clearly have a good car when we get it working, but it's pretty worrying to have a day like this."

Magnussen said that the main issue was that he could not switch on the tyres – despite having had no problem with that on low fuel in qualifying.

"I just had no grip," he said. "The car wasn't working, wasn't switched on. Sliding everywhere, locking up everywhere. Totally different car to what we had in qualifying. Very strange.

"We were a little bit sceptical about our race pace. We saw our deficit to low fuel, but we didn't expect it to be as bad as this, it was just hopeless today. We need to try to understand what went wrong."

Magnussen explained that the straight line speed problem is probably a result of Haas' high downforce car concept, which has the consequence of a lot of drag.

"We were the slowest on the straights," he said. "Other Ferrari engines were flying past me on the straights.

"We knew we had a high downforce package here so it's not such a big surprise, but we thought we'd be fast pace-wise.

"We're so slow and with the straight line speed it was impossible, just falling down every lap."