Haas: Qualifying so close to a Red Bull is fantastic

The duo qualified sixth and eighth, respectively, as the American squad placed both its drivers into Q3 for the second straight race. Grosjean will start Sunday’s race from 11th, however, after a three-position grid penalty was assessed due to an incident in Q1.

Magnussen set the eighth-fastest time in Q1 with a lap of 1:29.532 around the 5.412-kilometer (3.363-mile), 15-turn track. Grosjean was 10th-quickest with a lap of 1:29.688. Only the top-15 drivers move on to Q2. Grosjean’s grid penalty was assessed for impeding McLaren driver Lando Norris in turn 14 during the initial qualifying run of the evening.

In Q2, Magnussen earned the fifth-fastest time with a lap of 1:29.017 and Grosjean was eighth with a lap of 1:29.249, allowing each driver to make the top-10 cutoff and advance to Q3.

Q3 featured the heavy hitters of Formula One, with five-time and reigning champion Mercedes,16-time champion Scuderia Ferrari, and four-time champion Red Bull all represented.

Rich Energy Haas F1 Team held its own among these giants, with Magnussen qualifying a best-of-the-rest sixth with a lap of 1:28.757 and Grosjean taking eighth with a lap of 1:29.015.

Both Magnussen and Grosjean ran exclusively on the Pirelli P Zero Red soft tire throughout qualifying.

Romain Grosjean: “I think we can be happy with qualifying both cars in the top 10, it’s very encouraging. It looks like we’re the most stable, in terms of performance, in the top 10, which is good. You always hope for a bit more, but I was happy to take eighth."

"It should be a fun race tomorrow. It’s going to be long, it’s going to be hot, there’s going to be a lot of tire degradation. I think it’s a cool track for racing, hopefully we’ll bring some good points back home.”

Kevin Magnussen: “I’m happy and proud of the team today for delivering the car that I had in qualifying. To be sixth, and only a few thousands of a second from the fastest Red Bull is pretty good, and maybe a little unexpected. We were on par with them, and I hope we can give them a hard time in the race."

"I’m in a good starting position, so that’s the first box ticked, we’ll take it from there. Our race runs weren’t as good as our qualifying runs on Friday in practice, but I hope we can change that tomorrow and have a good race.”

Guenther Steiner, Team Principal: “On the positive side, qualifying so close to a Red Bull, for us is fantastic. We showed that as a team we work together pretty well. We had one issue with Romain (Grosjean), he’s been penalized three grid positions and one point."

"If you want to discuss the grid position, that’s one thing, but the point on his license is unacceptable. He had nothing to do with this, it was a clear misunderstanding with his crew. So, we start sixth and 11th, and we’ll try to do our best in tomorrow’s race and make up the positions lost due to the stewards.”