Magnussen's and DAMS' chances boosted on the Ardennes roller-coaster

Just a week after their successful Monaco weekend, DAMS and Kevin Magnussen continued in the same vein with another great performance in Belgium.

Two pole positions, a victory and a third place crowned the French squad's efforts on the Spa circuit, which have increased their lead in the championship. The technical troubles suffered by Norman Nato over the week-end were the only drawback.

Kevin Magnussen

Photo by: DPPI

They continued the good work in qualifying with the Dane clinching his first pole of the weekend and the Frenchman bagging the ninth-best time.

Kevin confirmed his brilliant qualifying performance in the race despite coming under intense pressure from Antonio Felix da Costa. Nato, though, had to cope with a car that was difficult to drive and slipped back to fifteen place at the flag.

On Sunday morning, Magnussen set his second pole of the weekend, while Nato, struggling with an ill-handling car, ended the session in twenty-third place. Unusually for Spa the race was run in brilliant sunshine! However, Kevin didn't make the best of starts in the second heat and was overtaken by Vandoorne.

He held onto second place until he came under attack from Stevens who managed to pass the DAMS driver. However, Magnussen knew what he had to do, namely: clinch another top-3 finish in front of da Costa. Which he achieved! Unfortunately for Nato things kept getting worse in the race, and despite his evident determination he again saw the flag in fifteenth place.

François Sicard, Managing Director: "The team had a remarkable weekend thanks to Kevin. We can leave feeling very satisfied with two pole positions, a victory, a top-3 finish and our place as leader reinforced. Bravo to Kevin and the team. I'm disappointed for Norman, however. It seems that something happened on his car, which didn't react as he expected. We're going to have a look at the problem and find the solution before the next race."

Kevin Magnussen: "I'm really happy with this weekend. It was very successful thanks to the team who gave me a great car. The races were pretty tough. Although I lacked a little top speed, it didn't stop me from obtaining strong results. I've increased my lead in the championship, but we have to stay concentrated as there's still a long way to go."

Norman Nato: "A character-building weekend! Even so it got off to a good start with third place in free practice. After that I felt that the car was getting worse and I had to fight with it. It's very frustrating, but I haven't lost confidence. The team's going to pinpoint the problem and we'll able to fight at the front in the next round."

DAMS