 Haas F1 Team drivers Romain Grosjean and Kevin Magnussen qualified seventh and 13th, respectively, for the season-ending Abu Dhabi Grand Prix Sunday at Yas Marina Circuit.
Grosjean set the 11th-fastest time in Q1 with a lap of 1:37.575 around the 5.554-kilometer (3.451-mile), 21-turn track. Magnussen was 15th quickest with a lap of 1:37.934. Only the top-15 drivers move on to Q2.
In Q2, Grosjean earned the seventh-fastest time with a lap of 1:36.732 to make the top-10 cutoff and advance to Q3. Magnussen, battling a water pressure issue on his Haas VF-18 during the session, was 13th with a 1:37.309.
Q3 featured the heavy hitters of Formula One, with five-time and reigning champion Mercedes, 16-time champion Scuderia Ferrari and four-time champion Red Bull all represented. Haas F1 Team held its own among these giants, with Grosjean qualifying a best-of-the-rest seventh with a lap of 1:36.192.
Both Grosjean and Magnussen ran exclusively on the Pirelli P Zero Pink hypersoft tire in qualifying.
Taking the pole for the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix was Mercedes driver Lewis Hamilton. His fast lap of 1:34.794 set a new track qualifying record at Yas Marina and was .162 of a second better than runner-up Valtteri Bottas, his Mercedes teammate. It was Hamilton’s 83rd career Formula One pole, his series-best 11th this season and fourth in the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix.
Before Grosjean, Magnussen and the rest of their Formula One counterparts participated in knockout qualifying, they had one final practice (FP3) to dial in their racecars for a quick lap around the track. Both drivers started on the Purple ultrasoft tire before transitioning to hypersofts 22 minutes into the hour-long session.
Grosjean ran 13 laps and set the seventh-fastest time with a 1:38.304 on his 11th tour. Magnussen also tallied 13 laps and earned his best time on his 10th lap – a 1:39.612 that put him 14th overall.
Quickest in FP3 was Hamilton, whose fast lap of 1:37.176 was .288 of a second better than Scuderia Ferrari’s Kimi Räikkönen.
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“It was a good qualifying. To be fair, my first run in Q3 was one of the best laps of my career. I crossed the line and knew there was not much more on track. It was good. I was happy. It was great to be in Q3 once again, adding to our tally for the year and especially at a track where we were not sure we’d be competitive. Tomorrow’s going to be a long race. It’s going to be interesting to see what we can do on the hypersofts, but I’m looking forward to it.”
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“I didn’t quite have the pace today, for some reason. I was just a little bit behind. The car was obviously good for Romain. He seems to be going well this weekend. Who knows, though, maybe it’s an advantage tomorrow to not start in the top-10. Hopefully, it is. I would have liked to have been a bit further up, somewhere around 11th. If you can’t get in front of the midfield in seventh or around there, it’s possibly better to be 11th. I’m 13th and it’s still not over from there, that’s for sure. We’ll see what we can do tomorrow.” |
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“We had one in and one out for final qualifying. We were hoping to have both cars up into Q3 today. The cars were obviously fast. Kevin had an issue with his car. It was losing water pressure and it damaged the floor. Romain did a fantastic job on his lap. I don’t think there was a lot more in it. Qualifying seventh for the last race of the year is good for the whole team. The car is fast, so I think Kevin can make some ground up tomorrow. Hopefully, we can get both cars in the points.” Haas F1 Team PR |
