Romain Grosjean hailed an “unbelievable” session for Haas as he qualified a surprise sixth for the season-opening Australian Grand Prix.
Haas, entering its second season in Formula 1, led the charge behind the leading Mercedes, Ferrari and Red Bull teams, with Grosjean profiting from Daniel Ricciardo’s Q3 crash to claim sixth.
“It was quite an unbelievable qualifying session for us,” said Grosjean.
“The car is looking good, even better than what we’ve seen recently. We’ve made some good progress over the weekend.
“There’s a lot more we can understand and analyse but, generally, it’s a great start for us.
“It’s always good to start with a strong qualifying session. It tells you that if you keep improving the car, you could be in a good place very soon.
“If that’s our baseline, and you can fight between sixth and 10th position, where it’s so tight, it would be great to be there most of the time and enjoy some good times.”
Team-mate Kevin Magnussen endured an error-filled session and finished a lowly 17th after being knocked out in Q1.
“I went off the track at Turn 12 on both of my laps – really annoyed with that,” he said.
“ The car was there in qualifying. My lap was good until I went off. Both times my lap was good. I’m disappointed with that. We should’ve been a lot further up the grid.
“Now, I have to fight quite hard in the race. There’s still a lot that can happen and I will give it my best tomorrow.”
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