Kevin Magnussen will start seventh on the grid at the Australian Grand Prix and is eyeing a points finish on race day.
For a second consecutive season, both Haas F1 Team drivers, Magnussen and Romain Grosjean, qualified inside the top ten, with the Dane qualified seventh, just behind his French team-mate, leaving the American team excited for the season.
Magnussen was thrilled with his performance during qualifying and set a time of 1:22:099, just behind team-mate Grosjean who set a time of 1:21:870, however, Magnussen says a mistake on his tyres in Q1 left him with only one new set of tyres for Q3 that ultimately compromised his day.
“I didn’t quite have the perfect qualifying session on my side, I made a mistake on my first tyre in Q1, which meant I had to use another set, leaving me with only one new set for Q3,” said Magnussen.
“That’s my bad, but fortunately the car was very good.”
After giving the team a great chance of scoring points at Albert Park, Magnussen praised the efforts of the crew in the garage. He says the whole Haas team have worked tirelessly to give both drivers a great car to keep them fighting at the front of the midfield.
“I’m very proud of the team with what they’ve done to put such a good car on track again this year,” he added. “They did a great job incorporating the new rule changes to allow us to maintain a competitive car.
“We’re not even that far from the guys at the front, we’re not fighting them, but we’re not too far. Hopefully we can build on this tomorrow and score some good points.”
