If you’d have told Haas going into this Formula One season that, after Miami, it would have points from four rounds and sit seventh in the championship, the team would have been delighted.

A car that is more forgiving on its tires, combined with some particularly impressive displays from Nico Hülkenberg, has put Haas a step ahead of Williams, Sauber and Alpine so far in 2024. It has surpassed all preseason expectations, set low after a difficult end to last year, in which it finished last, and that resulted in Guenther Steiner’s offseason exit.

On a couple of occasions, the deciding factor to make the top 10 has been Hülkenberg’s teammate, Kevin Magnussen, whose bold defensive tactics — it wouldn’t be a stretch to call them aggressive — have helped his teammate snare a couple of extra points.

But after a penalty-laden weekend in Miami, Magnussen will spend the rest of the season on the brink of an F1 race ban for his driving behavior, assuming he doesn’t trigger it with one more offense.

At a time when the gulf between F1’s fastest five teams and the slowest five is so great, every single point is valuable in the battle at the back of the grid, particularly as each constructors’ championship position is worth in the region of $12-15 million in prize money.

Magnussen had this in mind in Saudi Arabia after picking up a time penalty for a collision with Alex Albon early on and another for passing Yuki Tsunoda off-track. Knowing his race was ruined by the added time, he got aggressive in his defensive moves to help Hülkenberg. By slowing down the cars he was fighting, Magnussen created a gap that meant Hülkenberg could pit without losing a position, keeping 10th to score a precious point for Haas.

Post-race, Hülkenberg thanked Magnussen for playing the team game. Magnussen picked up three penalty points for the collision with Albon, while the overtake on Tsunoda only resulted in a 10-second time penalty — even though it had cost the cars behind far more.

Magnussen picked up another two penalty points in China for his collision with Tsunoda after the safety car restart, putting him on five for the season. Any driver who accrues 12 penalty points on their super license in a 12-month period is subject to a one-race ban, per the rules introduced in 2014.

But it was in the Miami sprint race that Magnussen did himself the real damage, again to aid Hülkenberg score a few points. He went off-track on three occasions to help stay ahead of Lewis Hamilton, opening up a gap to Hülkenberg ahead in the process. Each triggered a 10-second time penalty that meant Magnussen was classified last, but his actions were effective in allowing Hülkenberg to speed away in front.

Magnussen was already aware of the first 10-second time penalty dropping him to last before the second and third offenses, the latter also resulting in three penalty points on his super license because of the frequency of the misdeeds. Post-race on the radio, he mentioned some “nice teamwork”, and admitted afterwards to F1 TV that he had to “had to do my thing to protect Nico” who scored two points for Haas in seventh.

“I had to play the sporting game not to have him be overtaken as well,” Magnussen said. “So, not the way I want to go racing. But what I had to do.”

The stewards investigated Magnussen for unsportsmanlike behavior after the sprint, given he so freely admitted to driving how he did to help Hülkenberg, only to deem this bar to be set too high for his actions. Magnussen got the penalties the regulations dictate; if they’re not severe enough, that’s on the rules, not the driver. The stewards did note the fact the rules do not deter the kind of way Magnussen drove, and that they would “raise explicitly” the matter with the FIA and the stewarding team.

Magnussen agreed the rules could be improved. “If you’re fighting and you do something that’s not allowed, it would be great if the FIA had the power to tell you to give it back and swap positions,” he said. “That way, it’s going to have an effect immediately and stop any games being played.”

McLaren boss Andrea Stella was very unimpressed by Magnussen’s actions in the sprint, calling them “unacceptable” and saying that penalties should be “exponential,” not cumulative. “Five plus five plus five should equal… maybe you need to spend a weekend at home with your family, reflect on your sportsmanship and then come back,” Stella said.

It will require a close look from the FIA, whether this is a loophole it needs to close to improve driving standards, or simply part of the game. For now, it firmly remains the latter, and it is one that Magnussen played to perfection in Miami.

That’s not to say there may not be a price to pay. The three penalty points were followed by another two on Sunday for his clumsy collision with Logan Sargeant, taking Magnussen up to 10, two shy of a race ban.

It’s not the first time a driver has reached this tally — Pierre Gasly spent a few races on 10 points in early 2023 — but it will be the first time a driver has to spend the majority of the season with the threat of a ban looming.

Penalty points are typically limited to on-track incidents (the three for the repeated breaches of track limits was an exception), meaning it’s likely to only be a collision with another driver that might tip Magnussen over the limit to 12. Magnussen won’t drop any of his points until the start of next season, meaning he has another 18 races to survive without any more incidents.

Were Magnussen to be benched for a race, Oliver Bearman would be first in line to step in after his star turn for Ferrari in Jeddah. Bearman will take part in FP1 for Haas at Imola next weekend, his first of six scheduled practice appearances with the team over the course of the season.

Asking a driver to change their approach or be more mindful when in battle is far easier said than done. For Magnussen, as successful as his tactics have been so far in helping Haas this season, they now leave him at risk of spending a race on the sidelines barring a spotless remainder of the season.

(Lead photo of Kevin Magnussen: Song Haiyuan/MB Media/Getty Images)

The Colorado Avalanche will be without winger Valeri Nichushkin for the Stanley Cup Playoffs and for several months as he was placed in Stage 3 of the NHL/NHLPA Assistance Program.

The announcement came hours before the Avalanche took on the Dallas Stars in Game 4 of their Western Conference semifinals matchup. It’s the second time this season he’s been in the program, and Stage 3 means he violated the terms of the program.

“Under the terms of the joint program, Nichushkin will be suspended without pay for a minimum of six months and then will be eligible to apply for reinstatement,” a joint statement read.

He was leading the team with nine playoff goals.

Nichushkin was out for nearly two months earlier in the season to receive care from the program for issues that were not disclosed. It came on the heels of missing the final five games of a playoff exit last season for what the team called personal reasons.

During the Avalanche’s playoff series against the Seattle Kraken last season, he left the team for personal reasons. His absence started after officers were called to a crisis at a hotel before Game 3. A 28-year-old woman was reportedly in an ambulance when police arrived, and medics were told to speak with an Avalanche team physician to gather more details.

Valeri Nichushkin #13 of the Colorado Avalanche prepares for a first period face-off against the Winnipeg Jets in Game Five of the First Round of the 2024 Stanley Cup Playoffs at Canada Life Centre on April 30, 2024 in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada. (Jonathan Kozub/NHLI via Getty Images)

TOP 5 BEST NICKNAMES FOR NHL’S NEW UTAH TEAM

A Seattle police report said the Avalanche physician told officers that team employees found the woman when they checked on Nichushkin, The Associated Press reported. The physician told officers the woman appeared to be heavily intoxicated, too intoxicated to have left the hotel in a cab or otherwise and requested EMS assistance.

“I know you guys want to find something there, but it’s nothing really interesting. I think we should close it,” he said before the season when asked about the incident.

FILE – Colorado Avalanche forward Valeri Nichushkin celebrates his goal during the second period of the team’s NHL hockey game against the Buffalo Sabres, Feb. 4, 2020, in Buffalo, N.Y. (AP Photo/Jeffrey T. Barnes, File)

In the 54 games he did play during the 2023-24 season, he scored 28 goals and racked up 53 points.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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When the season ends, and the Dodgers reflect on their 162-game journey through the schedule, the details of Monday’s game against the San Francisco Giants aren’t likely to be remembered.

The result probably will be lumped in with dozens of others, another indistinguishable thread in the tapestry of a six-month season.

But for one crisp Bay Area night, in front of a split crowd of 35,000 at Oracle Park, both the Dodgers and the Giants — and large swaths of their rival fan bases — hung on the anticipation of every little twist.

And in the Dodgers’ 6-4 win, there were plenty of them in a game that featured an early pitchers’ duel, a late-inning bullpen battle, and a dramatic extra-inning ending, when Will Smith hammered a go-ahead two-run double in the top of the 10th and J.P. Feyereisen converted an improbable save for a shorthanded Dodgers bullpen.

“A lot of weird stuff tends to happen in this stadium, especially late in games,” said longtime Dodgers utilityman Kiké Hernández, who helped push the game to extras with a tying home run in the seventh.

“I think there’s something to the rivalry,” manager Dave Roberts added. “Regardless of records, it seems like we always have tight ballgames.”

On this night, the fireworks started early. Mookie Betts hit a leadoff home run — ending a 26-game home run drought, and giving him his 50th career leadoff blast — only for Giants center fielder Luis Matos to answer in the second inning with a three-run drive to left.

The starting pitchers offered little separation, with Giants right-hander Jordan Hicks giving up two runs over five innings, and Dodgers right-hander Yoshinobu Yamamoto surrendering four runs for the Dodgers (28-15) while pitching into the sixth.

The Dodgers tied the score at 3-3 by manufacturing runs in the fifth (on a Shohei Ohtani infield single) and sixth (on a Gavin Lux ground-rule double). They did it again the seventh, knotting the score at 4-4 on Hernández’s pinch-hit home run.

Finally, the tension reached its apex in the bottom of the 10th.

With several of their top relievers out because of injuries, and all of their available late-inning choices having been burned in the regulation innings, the Dodgers were down to Feyereisen — an injury-plagued veteran with a 9.00 ERA this season — as their best option remaining in the bullpen.

That made Smith’s two-run double in the top of the inning imperative, arriving at a crucial time for both the catcher (who entered the night in an 0-for-16 slump) and the team (which was coming off a series loss to the San Diego Padres).

“For us to ‘struggle’ in San Diego … and [tonight] come back and tie the game, tie the game and take the lead late in the game, it was good,” Hernández said. “Hopefully we get rolling again.”

Monday was rich with other minor subplots, in the first of a three-game series at Oracle Park.

The game marked the first trip both Ohtani and Yamamoto had made to San Francisco since this offseason, when they both legitimately considered the Giants as free agents before spurning them for record-breaking contracts with the Dodgers.

“Having those two guys in orange and black would change the landscape,” Roberts said pregame, before adding with a grin. “I think they look better in Dodger blue.”

Ohtani was greeted with a hostile reception. Unlike last month’s trip to Toronto, there were no unanimous boos from a crowd with large swaths of Dodger blue. But, there was plenty of heckling from those in orange and black — including a sign from one Giants fan that read “Parlay Shohei,” in an apparent dig at the gambling scandal surrounding his ex-interpreter, Ippei Mizuhara.

Yamamoto, meanwhile, was approached after the first inning by the umpires, who were checking to see if his blue glove had too strong of a white accent (MLB regulates glove colors to ensure batters can distinguish the ball on each pitch).

“They said something about the white Nike logo on there, they didn’t know if that was allowable,” Roberts said. “But they were just giving us heads up.”

After Yamamoto made way, Roberts had to navigate five leverage innings without some of the top arms in his banged-up bullpen.

Alex Vesia limited damage in the sixth, after Yamamoto walked two batters and gave up a go-ahead run on a Heliot Ramos single that got past Betts at shortstop.

The Dodgers then got consecutive zeros from Michael Grove, Daniel Hudson and, in the bottom of the ninth, Blake Treinen — who recorded a crucial pick-off at first base to post his fourth scoreless outing since returning from injury.

Then, after Smith put the Dodgers in front in the top of the 10th, Feyereisen induced a game-ending double-play for just his fifth career save, putting a climatic final touch on Monday’s rollicking one-night script.