Romain Grosjean is poised to continue Haas F1 Team’s point scoring run as he managed to qualify ninth for the Bahrain Grand Prix, which mirrors his starting place at least year’s duel in the desert.
His top ten finish came despite struggling with the car’s balance during Practice 3 that caused a spin at the exit of turn four resulting in a trip to the pits. However, the problems were obviously rectified come qualifying.
“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.”
The Frenchman was over the moon with the result, and with good reason. His ninth place starting position last year translated into a fifth place finish during the race.
“We’re in a great place to start the race,” he continued. “Last year we started P9 and finished fifth, so anything is possible.”
Tomorrow’s race will be contested much later in the day and in different circumstances than previously seen this season. The cars and tyres are set for the unknown, making strategy and damage management crucial to not only achieve success but just to finish at all. But Grosjean sounded on cloud nine as he returned to the pits, even singing to his engineer on the radio; that positivity must prove a source of energy going into tomorrow.
“It’s going to be a long race,” he added. “Tyre degradation is going to be a big thing here.
“I’m looking forward to seeing how it goes tomorrow and seeing what we can do from ninth.”
