Haas F1 Team drivers Kevin Magnussen and Mick Schumacher finished Saturday’s 24-lap Sprint race in P8 and P12 respectively, with both drivers subsequently assuming those positions on the grid for Sunday’s 71-lap São Paulo Grand Prix at the Autódromo José Carlos Pace.
Magnussen and Schumacher launched off the line from P1 and P20 – both utilizing the Pirelli P Zero Red soft tires. Magnussen confidently maintained his lead throughout the opening lap, while Max Verstappen and George Russell fought for position behind. A valiant effort from Magnussen to keep his car ahead ended on Lap 3 as the Red Bull of Verstappen took the lead, beginning a procession of overtakes from faster cars in the chasing pack, with Magnussen settling into P6.
On Lap 15, Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc took a position away from the Dane, and five laps later McLaren’s Lando Norris made a final move up the order, leaving Magnussen to bring his car home in P8, collecting one point.
Schumacher climbed five positions on the opening lap and maintained a consistent pace through the opening phase of the race to reach P14. On Lap 15 Schumacher overtook Alpine’s Esteban Ocon going into T4 to make up another place. With the Aston Martin of Lance Stroll receiving a 10-second time penalty for an earlier scuffle, Schumacher crossed the line in P12.
Up front, a new Sprint winner emerged with Mercedes’ George Russell taking home maximum points ahead of Carlos Sainz and his teammate Lewis Hamilton.
Kevin Magnussen, Driver No. 20, Haas F1 Team
“I really enjoyed today – and we got a point, and that’s also a very important point given our battle for eighth with AlphaTauri. We knew we weren’t going to win this race and that wasn’t really the aim. It was all about enjoying staring from the pole position and then really trying to get a point out of it. The dream was to try and finish ahead of Lando (Norris) just behind all the big cars, that didn’t quite happen, but we’re still happy with the point for eighth. We start from there tomorrow and that’s a position we’d be very happy about in regular qualifying. So, we start from inside the top 10 and hopefully we can go for points tomorrow too.”
Mick Schumacher, Driver No. 47, Haas F1 Team
“We had a good opening lap which definitely helped get us into position and our pace didn’t look too bad either, so we were able to fight a bit. We had a small issue with the engine, so that’s something we need to look at, but we’ll find out how much pace we lost through it. We’ve started further back before and got into the points so if everything goes well I’m sure we have a lot of potential.”
Guenther Steiner, Team Principal, Haas F1 Team
“After starting from pole with Kevin today, we accomplished what we wanted to accomplish and get points. Only one point but it’s difficult to do with all the big boys coming through but we got one. Mick had a very good race – he came from P20 to P12 – and for tomorrow we’re in a good position. There’s a chance for points so it was a pretty good day to for us and once again, fantastic teamwork.”
Next Up:
Sunday November 13 – The 71-lap São Paulo Grand Prix starts at 15:00 (Local).
Haas F1 Team PR
