Haas riders Kevin Magnussen and Nico Hulkenberg finished eleventh and fifteenth in the Baku sprint. If the Dane thinks he has a chance to win points in Sunday’s race, his partner will be less optimistic about tomorrow’s start due to the strong degradation of the rear tires.
Kevin Magnussen (11th): “The car drove well. After qualifying yesterday we couldn’t change the settings, but I found the rhythm and showed a good pace. We were fast enough to fight for the top ten, which is encouraging for tomorrow’s longer race.
Unfortunately I start 18th due to electrical problems in qualifying on Friday. The car has speed though, so I’m hoping for a good first lap and a clean race. Then there is the opportunity to compete for the top ten. This would be a good result.”
Nico Hulkenberg (15th): “It is necessary to study the strange behavior of the rear tires – after a few laps they completely failed. The rubber was very gritty – we need to find out the reasons, but it is clear that everything went in the wrong direction in the race.
The sprint has become a long series of laps, so I hope we learned something new. However, due to the “closed park” regime, we can hardly change anything about the car, which is a pity. Tomorrow I will start far enough behind, so I have a tough race ahead of me.”
Gunter Steiner, team leader: “Saturday was much better for us than Friday. In qualifying for the sprint we qualified in the positions we had to have. The team knew it would be difficult to reach the final, but we took a big step forward from yesterday.
Kevin showed good pace in the sprint. Niko has problems with the rear tires – we have to find the cause. The team is ready for tomorrow – we have a chance to score points.”
Source: F1 News
I am Christopher Clyde, an experienced journalist and content writer with a passion for sports. I have been writing about Formula 1 news for the past five years and am currently employed as an author at athletistic.com, one of the top sports websites in the US.
