After coming off of a great race result for the Haas F1 Team at the Bahrain Grand Prix, picking up 10 points through Kevin Magnussen, their weekend in Saudi Arabia for the Jeddah Grand Prix could not have got off to a worse start.
In free practice one, Magnussen completed just two installation laps before realising that he had an issue with his car which he brought back to the pits. It was later revealed that the VF-22 had suffered a hydraulic leak which resulted in the vehicle remaining in the garage for the rest of the session.
Practice two got underway with the team having fixed the issue. However, the second session of the day brought more heartbreak for Magnussen and the team as his car was forced to retire due to further mechanical issues. This left the Dane in twentieth as the day was brought to a close.
On the other hand, Mick Schumacher who had a difficult practice one like his team-mate, improved by the end of practice two. In the first session, Mick recorded 22 laps and his best time of 1:34.429 on the Yellow medium compound tyre could only put him one place above Magnussen in nineteenth.
In practice two however, Schumacher was able to improve on his first practice and he was able to complete 27 laps within the hour which left him and his team in a respectable thirteenth at the end of the session with a fastest lap time of 1:31.169.
Haas’ Team Principal, Guenther Steiner spoke afterwards about the difficult day for the team whilst reflecting on Mick Schumacher’s solid performance.
“Not the perfect day today but I think we can recoup tomorrow if we have a good day, it’s just that it could’ve gone better. Kevin had too many technical issues with the car but we’re working on it and will sort them out. Mick did a good, solid job.” said Steiner.
Steiner and the rest of the Haas team will be hoping for a better practice three on Saturday as they look ahead to qualifying and the race on Sunday.
