Haas team principal Guenther Steiner says the team achieved one of the targets for its debut season by getting both cars into Q3.
Romain Grosjean and Esteban Gutierrez will start the Japanese Grand Prix from eighth and tenth on the grid despite both drivers suffering setbacks on Friday. Grosjean had a low-speed crash at Degner while Gutierrez stopped at Dunlop with a broken turbocharger.
“We completed our program in FP3, the guys learned a lot and we were able to set the cars up for qualifying resulting in P8 and P10.”
“To get both Romain and Esteban into Q3 was one of the targets for this year and we’ve now achieved it. If you’re in your first year and you get two cars in there by merit, it’s fantastic. Hats off to the team and to the drivers.”
Haas had only previously got Gutierrez’s car into Q3 at Monza. The team hasn’t scored any points in the last seven races.
However Steiner believes that could change in Japan. “Tomorrow we’re going to try to do a good race and, for sure, it’s possible now to get into the points.”
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faulty (@faulty)
8th October 2016, 13:58
Come on Guti!
Nigel
8th October 2016, 15:53
Impressive the car matched the Force India.
Raveendhana
8th October 2016, 16:01
Even though Haas achieved a lot in the first year, but am a bit sceptical about their achievement buy the most they could form Ferrari.
AceAce
8th October 2016, 19:44
Conspiracy theories. Others think the new front wing helped. Williams and Force India praised Haas but you push dirt towards Ferrari. The hater in you.
Phylyp (@phylyp)
8th October 2016, 16:19
Best wishes for Haas for race day. One can only hope that their race isn’t marred by technical issues and glitches.
spoutnik (@spoutnik)
8th October 2016, 18:38
Quite a feature indeed! Go guys let’s grab good points!
BasCB (@bascb)
8th October 2016, 20:13
Let us hope the cars don’t break down again like we saw in the last races and on friday. But Haas certainly had one of the best rookie seasons in a long time (especially if we discount Brawn GP for ever being a new team)
Fer no.65 (@fer-no65)
8th October 2016, 20:32
I’m expecting Gutierrez to finishing outside the points. No way he’s keeping that top ten place tomorrow.
Sensord4notbeingafanboi (@peartree)
8th October 2016, 21:46
Why? @fer-no65 Is it because he hasn’t been the Haas hero or something else.
Fer no.65 (@fer-no65)
8th October 2016, 23:55
@peartree number of reasons, mainly I don’t rate him that high, I think he’s another Adrian Sutil. Also the williamses have the potential to jump him and we don’t know how reliable that Haas is these days. We’ve seen them struggle on Friday too so… Yeah, not expecting much from him
Sensord4notbeingafanboi (@peartree)
9th October 2016, 1:03
@fer-no65 All of that makes sense but I’d argue singling out Guti from Romain is unfair since Romain has been quite shabby.
Fer no.65 (@fer-no65)
9th October 2016, 5:34
@peartree still a safer bet tho! i was just refering to Gutierrez’s lack of points so far, not changing even after the good qualy.
pastaman (@)
8th October 2016, 22:49
Yessssss!! Go Haas!! (biased American)
I hope this was actually due to the new front wing, and not just the temperature conditions.