MoneyGram Haas F1 Team finished with Nico Hulkenberg sixth, and Kevin Magnussen 12th, at the British Grand Prix, Round 12 of the 2024 FIA Formula 1 World Championship, held Sunday at Silverstone.
Hulkenberg started from sixth position - his highest grid slot of the season - on Pirelli P Zero Yellow medium tires but a challenging first lap shuffled the German down to ninth. Hulkenberg made gains when the rain fell mid-race, pitting for Cinturato Green intermediate tires on lap 26, emerging in seventh place. Hulkenberg gained one more spot when George Russell retired his Mercedes, before pitting again on lap 39 for Red soft tires when the circuit dried, coming out in sixth. Hulkenberg retained the position through the final stint of the race to make it successive sixth places, equaling his and MoneyGram Haas F1 Team's best race result of 2024.
Magnussen took the start from 17th place, also on medium tires, and enjoyed a strong first stint, passing several cars to emerge in contention for the top 10. Magnussen came in for intermediates on lap 27 and held 11th through the tricky slippery middle stint of the race - taking on softs on lap 37. The Dane battled with Williams' Logan Sargeant through the final stages and came home in 12th at the checkered flag.
The result solidifies seventh place in the Constructors' Championship for MoneyGram Haas F1 Team - with 27 points scored at the halfway mark of the season.
Nico Hulkenberg: "I'm very happy for the team, eight more points on the board - super valuable. More importantly, the performance is there with this update and that makes me optimistic for the remainder of the season. We're definitely in the fight now for the fifth-fastest team, which is obviously positive and nobody expected that a few weeks ago. It's very encouraging and very positive. It was a tricky race with the rain at the beginning which wasn't enough for inters. Around here with high-speed corners and the grip like this, it was very risky, but we managed to keep it clean and got back what we lost at the start."
Kevin Magnussen: "We pitted one lap too early I think, we were sort of in range of Albon and he stayed out another lap and opened the gap massively. The pace wasn't that good on the soft tire really, I was graining immediately and just didn't have a good stint. It's great for Nico to score eight points today, that's a really good couple of weekends for the team, and it's super important. I wish I could've contributed a little bit but I didn't have it at the end."
Ayao Komatsu, Team Principal: "It's an excellent day. It's a shame we couldn't score points with both cars as had Kevin not had that graining issue on the softs in the last stint, he would've been close to scoring points. Overall, P6 at two races in a row, what more can I ask for. The updates have worked again and Nico felt it straightaway on Friday, his qualifying on Saturday showed it and his race pace today showed it. Kevin in the old spec car was happy, but I think he had damage from FP2, so all in all today, these are results to be proud of. It wasn't an easy race, there were changeable conditions and it's easy to say you only have to put the right tires on at the right time, but it's much more difficult to do, but we achieved that. It's been a huge team effort so I'm really proud of them."
Check out our Sunday gallery from Silverstone here.
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