28/10/2018
NEWS STORY
Haas F1 Team drivers Kevin Magnussen and Romain Grosjean wrapped up a difficult Mexican Grand Prix on Sunday by finishing 15th and 16th, respectively, in the 71-lap contest at Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez in Mexico City.
The third-to-last round of the 2018 FIA Formula One World Championship proved to be a challenge in qualifying and in the race, as Magnussen started 16th and Grosjean started 19th after neither was able to make it out of the first round of knockout qualifying on Saturday.
In the race, the two attempted to take advantage of varying tire strategies up and down the pit lane, and even with Magnussen rising to as high as ninth and Grosjean climbing all the way to 11th, both fell to the back of the line after their respective pit stops on laps 43 and 44 where they swapped the Pirelli P Zero Red supersoft tires they started the race with for Purple ultrasofts. The duo was the last of those still running at the conclusion of the race around the 4.304-kilometer (2.674-mile), 17-turn circuit, as four drivers failed to finish.
Haas F1 Team maintained fifth in the constructors' standings despite the result. Nineteen rounds into the 21-race Formula One schedule, the American squad trails fourth-place Renault by 30 points and holds a 22-point advantage over sixth-place McLaren.
Magnussen is ninth in the driver's championship with 53 points and Grosjean is 13th with 31 points.
Romain Grosjean: "It's been a very tough day. We didn't get what we were expecting on the ultrasofts. On the supersofts, we made it as good as we could for as long as we could. We got the maximum out of the tire life. Then on the ultrasofts, we were having problems we were just not expecting. There was a lot of rear degradation. I decided to pit again under the final VSC (Virtual Safety Car). It didn't make a difference in finishing with Kevin. It was very close. Just a tough day."
Kevin Magnussen: "We had gotten ourselves into a good position, then we pitted around lap 40. When we got out onto the ultrasoft tire though, it just didn't work at all. I mean, if we want great racing, we need tires. That just wasn't possible today with these tires. It's tough, but we move on."
Guenther Steiner: "The only good thing about this weekend is that it ended. There's nothing good to take away from here. We were just too slow and we couldn't get the tires to work. We move on to the next one."
Check out our Sunday gallery from Mexico City, here.