Rich Energy Haas F1 Team driver Kevin Magnussen soldiered to a 13th-place finish Sunday in the Azerbaijan Grand Prix, the fourth round of the 2019 FIA Formula One World Championship. Teammate Romain Grosjean saw an early end to his day when he retired 13 laps from the end of today’s 51-lap race with brake issues.
Magnussen started from the 12th grid position on a set of Pirelli P Zero Red soft tires as did most of the rest of the field. He dropped a position before pitting on lap eight for a set of Yellow medium tires. He resumed in 18th but steadily made his way back toward his start position, reaching 12th by lap 14. He held that relative position before dropping a couple of spots on lap 32. He pitted a second time for a new set of Red soft tires during a brief virtual safety car period for an incident on lap 40 and resumed in 13th, where he stayed until the finish.
Grosjean was one of five drivers to start the race on Yellow mediums from his 14th position on the grid, and after dropping two positions during the opening laps, he advanced as high as seventh on lap 13 as most of the field cycled through for their initial pit stops. He climbed back to 11th before a brake lockup, while negotiating turn 15 on lap 25, sent him briefly down a safety road. He resumed in 17th and held station before finally pitting from 16th for a set of Red soft tires on lap 36. Three laps later, he was called into the pits to investigate his VF-19’s brake issue and subsequently retired.
Today’s results dropped the Rich Energy Haas F1 Team two positions to eighth in the constructors’ standings, four points behind seventh-place Renault and four points ahead of ninth-place Toro Rosso.
Pole winner Valtteri Bottas led the fourth consecutive 1-2 finish by Mercedes this season, winning the Azerbaijan Grand Prix by 1.524 seconds over his teammate Lewis Hamilton for his second victory of 2019, the fifth of his career and first at Baku. Rounding out the podium was third-place Sebastian Vettel of Scuderia Ferrari.
The 2019 FIA Formula One World Championship resumes with the Spanish Grand Prix May 12 at Circuit de Barcelona – Catalunya.
Hass F-1 Team PR
