Haas were once again on the brink of making Q3 for only the second time in their short history, but Romain Grosjean just fell short by a tenth of a second to start P11.
Team principal Guenther Steiner joked that starting 11th was beginning to "get old" after recently claiming that regular Q3 appearances is an "achievable" target for the team.
Although Haas have only qualified 11th on three occasions this season, they have in fact narrowly missed out on a Q3 slot eight times, with just a few tenths in it.
However Steiner is pleased with their session and the fact Grosjean can choose his start tyres.
"It was quite an exciting qualifying session with a lot of action out there," he said. "To keep cool in this situation is very difficult, but I think the team did a good job. We managed everything very well, so we’ve no regrets.
"We ended up 11th and 15th. Being 11th is starting to get old, but at least by being there Romain can start on new tyres, so that will be an advantage.
"Esteban can make his way up. He’s in good company, with Kimi [Raikkonen] just ahead. We’re almost there, but still not in Q3, which is where we want to be.
"But 11th is a good starting position. Tomorrow we’re confident we can move up. We’ll be trying hard to get points."
Grosjean was also pleased with his and the team's performance, insisting they made "all the right decisions" considering the difficult conditions, which included four red flags and two delays.
"It was close," commented Grosjean. "We were only one-tenth off of Lewis [Hamilton's] P10 time. All things considered, to be that close, it’s a good thing.
"We successfully made all the right decisions at the right time in qualifying, including tyre choices. It was a very difficult qualifying session, but we showed how much we’ve improved as a team from day one through today."
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