Haas secured their best ever qualifying result in Germany as the team were once again 'best of the rest'.
Kevin Magnussen will start fifth ahead of team-mate Romain Grosjean in sixth – filling the third row on the grid for Sunday's German Grand Prix – which is their joint-highest finish, but also their strongest Saturday result to date with the pair lining up side-by-side.
The pair were helped by both Daniel Ricciardo and Lewis Hamilton failing to make Q3. The former choosing not to run due to grid penalties, whilst the Mercedes driver suffered a hydraulic issue in Q2.
Magnussen admitted they got the absolute maximum and is hoping for a clean race to deliver a strong points haul.
“That was a nice lap at the end. There was no beating the Red Bulls – they’re still too far ahead for us to play with them, but we’re best of the rest again, and that’s our target. Now we just need to get it tomorrow as well, which is the bigger challenge.
GERMAN GRAND PRIX: Qualifying results | Photo gallery
"For tomorrow, you just hope the guys ahead get a good start so we can get some free air and do our own thing. We’re lucky that it’s looking like the temperatures will be a little bit cooler. With the problems we had on Friday with the overheating of the tyres, maybe it’ll be a bit better. Hopefully, the car will behave well, as it did today, and we can score some good points."
Team boss Guenther Steiner added: "It’s a very happy day today. Qualifying fifth and sixth is the best. That’s what we wanted to achieve, and that’s what we did achieve. It was a good job from everybody."
Grosjean meanwhile was disappointed not to complete a clean final attempt, but was encouraged by the car's pace.
“It was a pretty good session. We just need to see what happened on my last run. I went wide on turn one, so we just have analyse that. We couldn’t do the second push lap in Q3, unfortunately, but all in all, it was a good session.
"I’m really happy for the team. On a track were we were not sure we’d be competitive, we’ve been good. We’re right up there, so that’s very encouraging. I think we’re in a good place for tomorrow."
Discussion about this post