02/07/2022
NEWS STORY
Haas F1 Team drivers Kevin Magnussen and Mick Schumacher qualified 17th and 19th respectively for the British Grand Prix, Round 10 of the 2022 FIA Formula 1 World Championship.
The forecasted rain duly arrived just minutes before the start of qualifying at Silverstone Circuit with Q1 seeing the field hit the track shod exclusively on the Cinturato Green intermediate tires to tackle the tricky conditions.
Magnussen and Schumacher set four timed laps on their first set of tires in Q1 - both drivers dealing with understeer throughout the session while Schumacher was also forced to contend with a steering wheel imbalance on his VF-22.
Magnussen's final effort before pitting for a fresh set of intermediates was a 1:43.513. Armed with fresh rubber he delivered a 1:42.180 followed by a 1:42.159 to finish P17 - two spots out of making it through to Q2. Schumacher's final lap on his first set was a 1:45.175. With new intermediates on he charged to the checkered setting a 1:43.174 then a 1:42.708 but exited qualifying in P19.
Kevin Magnussen: "Mick was looking good in FP3, I didn't have a good one, but I could see what the car could do so I was confident. Then it rained, and that made me even more confident but for some reason we just didn't have the pace today in the wet. It's interesting, we've been quick in the wet a couple of times this year, but it's been on very different tracks to this one. There's something to learn from that so we'll try again tomorrow and see if we can fight our way back into the top-10."
Mick Schumacher: "Unfortunately we had an issue with the car, it seemed like something with the steering wasn't right which is the last thing you want, especially in these changing conditions. We'll analyze what happened, but I think that was a big reason why we didn't make the step-up into Q2. I'm down for any conditions tomorrow, whether it's wet or dry - it's fun in any conditions - so I'm looking forward to it."
Guenther Steiner, Team Principal: "It wasn't a smooth day today. In FP3, Mick did a very good job but Kevin couldn't find the balance in the car. In qualifying in the rain, we just had too much understeer and we wore the front-left tire out. We just couldn't get the car to turn so we were out in Q1 and on Mick's car, his steering wheel was off about 10 degrees which obviously is not ideal when you're out in these conditions trying to qualify. Now we're regrouping to get the best out of tomorrow."
Check out our Saturday gallery from Silverstone here.