Haas achieved target with double Q3 appearance

2016 Japanese Grand Prix

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Haas team principal Guenther Steiner says the team achieved one of the targets for its debut season by getting both cars into Q3.

Romain Grosjean and Esteban Gutierrez will start the Japanese Grand Prix from eighth and tenth on the grid despite both drivers suffering setbacks on Friday. Grosjean had a low-speed crash at Degner while Gutierrez stopped at Dunlop with a broken turbocharger.

Japanese Grand Prix qualifying in pictures
Steiner said Saturday was “a very good day for us”.

“We completed our program in FP3, the guys learned a lot and we were able to set the cars up for qualifying resulting in P8 and P10.”

“To get both Romain and Esteban into Q3 was one of the targets for this year and we’ve now achieved it. If you’re in your first year and you get two cars in there by merit, it’s fantastic. Hats off to the team and to the drivers.”

Haas had only previously got Gutierrez’s car into Q3 at Monza. The team hasn’t scored any points in the last seven races.

However Steiner believes that could change in Japan. “Tomorrow we’re going to try to do a good race and, for sure, it’s possible now to get into the points.”

2016 Japanese Grand Prix

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    Keith Collantine
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    13 comments on “Haas achieved target with double Q3 appearance”

    1. Come on Guti!

    2. Impressive the car matched the Force India.

    3. Even though Haas achieved a lot in the first year, but am a bit sceptical about their achievement buy the most they could form Ferrari.

      1. Conspiracy theories. Others think the new front wing helped. Williams and Force India praised Haas but you push dirt towards Ferrari. The hater in you.

    4. Best wishes for Haas for race day. One can only hope that their race isn’t marred by technical issues and glitches.

    5. Quite a feature indeed! Go guys let’s grab good points!

    6. Let us hope the cars don’t break down again like we saw in the last races and on friday. But Haas certainly had one of the best rookie seasons in a long time (especially if we discount Brawn GP for ever being a new team)

    7. I’m expecting Gutierrez to finishing outside the points. No way he’s keeping that top ten place tomorrow.

      1. Why? @fer-no65 Is it because he hasn’t been the Haas hero or something else.

        1. @peartree number of reasons, mainly I don’t rate him that high, I think he’s another Adrian Sutil. Also the williamses have the potential to jump him and we don’t know how reliable that Haas is these days. We’ve seen them struggle on Friday too so… Yeah, not expecting much from him

          1. @fer-no65 All of that makes sense but I’d argue singling out Guti from Romain is unfair since Romain has been quite shabby.

            1. @peartree still a safer bet tho! i was just refering to Gutierrez’s lack of points so far, not changing even after the good qualy.

    8. Yessssss!! Go Haas!! (biased American)

      I hope this was actually due to the new front wing, and not just the temperature conditions.

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