Hamilton Russell battle a 'bad idea' - Magnussen

Kevin Magnussen has revealed why his battle with Mercedes drivers Lewis Hamilton and George Russell was a 'bad idea'.

Starting seventh on his return to F1, the Danish driver made an excellent start to the Bahrain Grand Prix and was challenging Hamilton's W13 for fifth going into turn four.

With the charging Russell behind in the first stint, Magnussen pushed to keep the Briton at bay, only to lock up into turn one at one stage and concede position.

On his battles with the Mercedes duo, Magnussen, who eventually finished fifth after profiting from a double Red Bull retirement, said: "I knew I had to.

"It was a hard decision. Should I try and keep these people behind? It is a Mercedes and then someone else.

"I didn't know how much faster they were so [I thought] maybe I could keep them behind for the stint.

"So I started pushing really hard, which wasn't a good idea looking back. I should have just gone easy for the tyres.

"We had to pit two laps earlier than our planned stop because I used the tyres too hard."

Explaining how the race came back towards him in the second half, Magnussen added: "We got back on track so managed that pretty well with the right amount of pushing in the critical moments.

"We got onto the C2 tyre on exactly the lap we had planned and we had the safety car with a sprint race at the end.

"I am certainly getting more into it but I think everyone is now with these cars, everyone is learning more, getting on top of it."

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