Kevin Magnussen hopes that Haas' race pace – the Achilles heel of its VF-23 car this season – will hold up in Sunday's Singapore GP for a "one-off chance" of points.
For the first time this season, Haas put both its cars in the top-10 in qualifying with Magnussen setting the sixth fastest time in Saturday's shootout in Marina Bay while teammate Nico Hulkenberg was ninth.
While Haas has enjoyed several strong performances this year in qualifying, come race day its drivers' efforts have consistently been undermined by the chronic tyre degradation issues that have plagued the US outfit's car.
But amid the team's unexpected strength in Singapore, Magnussen is hoping Haas will catch a break on Sunday and enjoy a solid run in the points.
"First of all, for whatever reason, the car is stronger on this track," commented Magnussen after qualifying.
"We’ve done a good job and capitalized on the good form of the car, got both cars into Q3 and we start from a good position tomorrow.
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"We know it’s hard to overtake here, I would love to still have the little twisty corners in sector three now that I’m here because we know our race pace isn’t quite there to stay where we are, but maybe on this track there’s a chance.
"That comes with a little extra pressure as you know it’s a bit of a one-off chance and we really want to grab it and score some points tomorrow."
©Haas
Hulkenberg applauded his teammate for a job well done that also spurred on the German who "gave it everything" on his final run, but without being able to match Magnussen's quickest flyer.
"It’s a very strong result for the team to have both cars in Q3," said the Hulk.
"I don’t think we expected that so that’s a pleasant surprise and we’ll enjoy this today, regardless of what happens tomorrow.
"It was a really strong performance by Kevin, he was on it all of qualifying, so I really had to give it everything and didn’t get it quite connected and clean on my side, but that’s how it is sometimes.
"We’ve always been strong in qualifying, the low-speed favors us too. Let’s see what we can do tomorrow."
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Haas team boss Guenther Steiner said the team's strong performance at Marina Bay reflected its tireless efforts to improve its efforts. But like his drivers, tyres will be the focus of his attention in this evening's event.
"We know that we’re struggling but it shows again that we keep working hard and then get something out of it," Steiner commented;
"Whatever is there to get, today we showed we got it – between the drivers, mechanics, and engineers, everybody did the maximum and it’s our first double Q3 this year.
"Obviously, it’s a happy moment. We now need to try and get something from tomorrow. Hopefully we can get the tires to work with us, but for sure we will be working hard to make it happen."
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