Haas need to move on from setback

Kevin Magnussen and Romain Grosjean wrapped up a difficult race by finishing 15th and 16th respectively at Autódromo Hermanos Rodríguez in Mexico City.

It proved 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 Saturday’s first round of knockout qualifying.

In the race, the two drivers attempted to take advantage of varying tyre strategies up and down the pit lane. Magnussen rose to ninth and Grosjean 11th but both fell to the back of the line after their respective pit stops where they swapped the Pirelli P Zero Red supersoft tyres for purple ultrasofts.

Despite that, Haas maintained fifth in the constructors’ standings. Nineteen rounds into the 21-race Formula One schedule, the Banbury squad trails fourth-place Renault Sport 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.

Team boss Guenther Steiner said: “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 tyres to work. We move on to the next one.”

Grosjean said: “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 tyre life. It was very close, just a tough day.”

Magnussen added: “If we want great racing, we need tyres, that just wasn’t possible with these tyres. It’s tough but we move on.”