F1 News, Reports and Race Results

Grosjean gets all the luck for Haas in qualifying

Haas F1's wildly fluctuating weekend continued on Saturday, with starkly contrasting good and bad fortunes for drivers Romain Grosjean and Kevin Magnussen.

Grosjean suffered a big accident in the final practice session. When he later made his first run in qualifying, he suffered a huge lock-up that left him scrambling to put a proper time together.

But not only did he escape the drop zone, he was then able to make it into the top ten shoot-out. He will start the Bahrain Grand Prix from ninth place, which he admitted was better than he could have expected.

"It’s been great to turn around the day as we did," he said. "We really struggled in FP3. I couldn’t feel the car.

"The guys did a great job setting it up for qualifying and the car felt much better from the first run in Q1.

"That was good and I’m very happy where we are," he added. "We’re in a great place to start the race. Last year we started P9 and finished fifth, so anything is possible."

Unfortunately, Grosjean's good luck didn't brush off on team mate Kevin Magnussen. He will start from the back row after his final run in Q1 had to be abandoned due to yellow flags for Carlos Sainz' stationary Toro Ross.

"It’s bad luck," shrugged the Dane. "These things happen, but it’s always annoying. That’s how it is sometimes.

"We’ve just got to get up tomorrow and have a good race.

"We recovered as well as you can for qualifying," offered Haas team principal Guenther Steiner. "Romain qualified ninth, which at the moment if we have a good day is where we should be.

"Kevin was unlucky in Q1, again, with a double yellow.

"Last week it was Romain’s turn and today it was Kevin’s time, otherwise we were pretty confident he would’ve made it into Q2."

GALLERY: All the pictures from Saturday in Bahrain

Keep up to date with all the F1 news via Facebook and Twitter

Andrew Lewin

Andrew first became a fan of Formula 1 during the time when Michael Schumacher and Damon Hill were stepping into the limelight after the era of Alain Prost, Nigel Mansell and Aryton Senna. He's been addicted ever since, and has been writing about the sport now for nearly a quarter of a century for a number of online news sites. He's also written professionally about GP2 (now Formula 2), GP3, IndyCar, World Rally Championship, MotoGP and NASCAR. In his other professional life, Andrew is a freelance writer, social media consultant, web developer/programmer, and digital specialist in the fields of accessibility, usability, IA, online communities and public sector procurement. He worked for many years in magazine production at Bauer Media, and for over a decade he was part of the digital media team at the UK government's communications department. Born and raised in Essex, Andrew currently lives and works in south-west London.

Recent Posts

Brundle: Russell likely ‘bruised’ by painful Monza defeat

Sky F1's Martin Brundle suspects George Russell has every reason to look back on Monza…

50 minutes ago

Scheckter brings it home for Ferrari and himself at Monza

On this day in 1979, Jody Scheckter delivered the world title to himself and to…

2 hours ago

A new Iceman cometh: Robin Raikkonen joins Red Bull Junior Team

The legend of the Iceman officially enters its next generation. Robin Räikkönen, the 11-year-old karting…

3 hours ago

Hamilton sends Ferrari fans clear message: ‘I don’t race dirty’

Lewis Hamilton has moved to extinguish any fears that his opening-lap clash with Charles Leclerc…

4 hours ago

Wolff: Antonelli ‘like an AI agent’ in relentless F1 evolution

Mercedes boss Toto Wolff has watched Kimi Antonelli’s rise from promising rookie to Formula 1…

5 hours ago

Williams turns back the clock with stunning Madrid retro livery

Williams is turning the clock back in Madrid, swapping the familiar modern-day colours of its…

7 hours ago