Guenther Steiner, Haas F1 Team’s Team Principal reflected on momentous day for the team as Kevin Magnussen picked up his first Pole Position in the FIA Formula 1 World Championship on the weekend of his one hundredth Grand Prix start for the team and Team Founder’s Gene Haas’ birthday.
After coming away from the Mexico without any points, Haas headed into the penultimate race weekend of the season in Brazil in hope of some much needed points as they currently sit in eighth place in the Constructors’ Championship, only one point ahead of Scuderia AlphaTauri in ninth.
There would be a chance for more points this weekend as the São Paulo Grand Prix hosts the final sprint race of the season on Saturday, meaning that Friday would consist one one practice session before qualifying. Haas ended the first practice session of the weekend well with there also some room for improvement as Mick Schumacher finished eighth in the session and his team-mate Magnussen finishing in sixteenth with the team using all three slick tyre options in the FP1.
As we headed into qualifying, the weather conditions had changed with the teams preparing for rain later on. Drivers started Q3 on the Intermediate tyres as some parts of the track were slightly damp.
Magnussen had set a good lap time on the green rubber before Pierre Gasly switched to slicks on the Red soft tyre half way through the session. As his lap times were improving, everyone else decided to follow suit and change their tyres. Magnussen comfortably made it into Q2 after improving on his first run. However, his team-mate was unable to capitalise on the drying conditions and finished the session in twentieth.
Magnussen proceeded into Q2 setting a lap time of 1:12.280 on his first run. He headed back to the garage to put on a new set of soft tyres and improved on his first time with a 1:11.410 which saw him finish seventh in the session and advance to Q3.
The weather began to change again in Q3 and with rainfall in only a matter of time, the Dane headed out first on a new set of soft tyre to get a good lap in before the rain. Magnussen set a lap time of 1:11.674 which put him on provisional pole for the moment.
A couple of minutes later, the red flag was out after George Russell was left beached at Turn four. After his car was removed, the session got going again however, it had now began to rain and drivers had to change back to the inters. Some drivers went back out but soon realised they were not going to be able to improve on their times meaning that Magnussen had secured his first ever pole position in F1 ahead of the sprint race on Saturday.
Magnussen is only the sixth driver this season to claim a pole position as, the Haas team celebrated wildly as the Dane shocked the Formula 1 world. This has been a moment that Haas have been waiting for, for a long time and they will be hoping that they can finish the weekend with some much needed points.
“It’s a great moment for Haas F1 Team,” said Steiner. “We’ve waited seven years for this, and we work hard, it shows again that hard work and determination pays off.
“You have to be in the right place at the right time and I think we didn’t luck into this, we worked hard to be there. When it came to it, Kevin pulled the lap off and was better than the others out there in difficult conditions.
“To the whole team, I can’t say more than thank you and I think it’s a birthday present for the boss. I told Gene we had to do it a day early as we couldn’t change qualifying. Unfortunately, with Mick he was very quick on the intermediate tyres but when we put the dry tyres on for his last run, he couldn’t get the feeling with the car.
“Now we focus on tomorrow, we are still in a fight for eighth place in the Constructors’ Championship and we’ll put 100 percent effort to achieve it. Thanks again to the whole team and to the fans for supporting us all the time”