Hulkenberg: Thirteenth place reflects our speed

Haas’ best result in qualifying for the Italian Grand Prix was Nico Hulkenberg’s thirteenth place. His teammate Kevin Magnussen qualified last and explained that on the Hard tires he didn’t have the speed needed for the first part of qualifying.

Nico Hulkenberg (13th): “In the third practice session, our pace on the soft tires was in line with expectations – for a slow car, soft tires are always preferable to hard ones.

Before I qualified, I prepared for a really hard fight. I’m glad I could start the second part even without a slipstream – I was pleasantly surprised, because the lack of a slipstream is expensive on this track.

The second part of qualifying wasn’t ideal – there were problems on the last try, but thirteenth position reflects our speed.

Kevin Magnussen (19th): “I was quite happy with the car on the Soft tires during the second and third practice – we looked quite competitive in this setup. Unfortunately, the car simply lacked balance on the Hard tyres. Normally we look good in qualifying, but not on the hard tyres, which were mandatory in the first session this weekend.

Anyway, the race is tomorrow. I hope we will be more competitive on other tire compounds.”

Gunther Steiner, Team boss: “It would be great to reach the final with at least one car – Niko was very close to that. The fight is very tight and even a small mistake significantly affects the result. Nico’s last lap wasn’t the best and he couldn’t continue. Anyway, good performance, because he was able to go into the second part without a slipstream.

As for Kevin, Lance Stroll screwed up his last lap. I don’t know if Kevin could have gone faster, but when you have to stay within a certain lap time and everyone was on different programs it wasn’t easy to get it right. You need to understand how to work better next time, avoid a fine and use a slipstream, or at least avoid getting into traffic.