Haas F1 Team: a Saturday to forget for Romain Grosjean
Günther Steiner's men were waiting with bated breath for China following their double retirement in Australia. Saturday was a mixed bag for the American team. Kevin Magnussen set the 12th fastest time, less than a tenth off the pace for Q3, while Romain Grosjean had to start from the back of the grid following a penalty.
After a good qualifying session in Australia for Romain Grosjean (6th), the weekends follow one another but are not alike. The Frenchman, who was well on his way to entering Q2, fell victim to Antonio Giovinazzi’s off-track excursion. He even received a penalty for not respecting the yellow flags, relegating him to 19th position, just ahead of Jolyon Palmer in the Renault, who was also penalized for the same infraction.
Kevin Magnussen, on his part, gradually took possession of his car to climb to the 12th position, seven-hundredths away from Q3.
Romain Grosjean: 17th in Q1 (1:35.223), penalized by 5 additional positions
The Frenchman could have hoped for better, but after an initial spin in the final turn that served as a wake-up call, he was indirectly affected by the accident involving Giovinazzi’s Sauber, who also lost control of his car in the last turn.
Trouble for GRO as he spins at Turn 16 😣🔄#ChineseGP #Quali 🇨🇳 pic.twitter.com/QrAwXjkTGs
— Formula 1 (@F1) 8 avril 2017
The former Lotus driver had to settle for the 17th position on the starting grid. However, this was before the stewards imposed a five-place penalty for not respecting the yellow flag rules. Romain Grosjean allegedly did not slow down enough according to his telemetry data.
He reflects on this session: « The first lap was good. Then I spun in the last corner for unexplained reasons. We need to look into this to see if I was going a bit too fast coming out of that corner. The second lap was really interesting, I was about to reach 10th position but Giovinazzi lost control in the last corner and I couldn’t finish my lap. »
So apppatently I made no effort to slow down and didn’t abandon the lap… data shows a different point of view. Btw didn’t even open my DRS pic.twitter.com/ONsbzb62hT
— Romain Grosjean (@RGrosjean) 8 avril 2017
The observation is all the more disappointing because the Frenchman, who had difficulties with his car during the morning tests, had found solutions to get closer to Q3.
« I wasn’t very happy with the car this morning during FP3. I was struggling a bit, but we managed to fix that during the lunch break. As I was saying, the car was on track to be 10th. We were really close to reaching Q3. »
Romain Grosjean now turns his attention to the race, which is likely to be long and epic with the rain, particularly concerning the evolution of the tires.
« Tomorrow it will be a long race. We know that tire degradation will be a huge thing to manage here in the rain, especially since it should rain. »
Kevin Magnussen 12th in Q2 (1:34.164)
On the Danish driver’s side, he was quite pleased following the qualifications. He continues his learning within his new team.
I am relatively happy. We were about half a tenth away from Q3. These are the best qualifications I’ve experienced in a while. I can’t be unhappy with that. It’s obviously a bit annoying not to have made it (to Q3) when the margin is so tiny. The lap wasn’t bad.
The former Renault driver in 2016 believes in the capabilities and performance of his single-seater.
« I think the car is competitive, especially in race conditions. It’s a good car. If it rains, we have no idea how it will turn out. We’ll see. »
