F1 | Haas disappointing in qualifying, Kevin Magnussen: “We predicted it”

They were already sure, at Haas, that the Mexican Grand Prix would be anything but easy, but both Kevin Magnussen and Romain Grosjean still failed to hide their disappointment at the end of qualifying.

Romain Grosjean hoped to be able to get into at least Q2, after the sixteenth best time in the third free practice session, but his Haas stopped him in eighteenth position in Q1, behind teammate Magnussen.

"Last night we made quite a few changes to the car, and in the third practice session the car was really good at the rear, while the front remained an unknown. I thought if we could balance the front and keep the rear, we could get into Q2 – said Grosjean – I was confident, I thought I could do it. We rebalanced everything, qualifying started, I was in turn 1 and I turned around, and I had simply braked! The changes we have to make from session to session are huge, it's not something you normally do. We have to try to understand everything, we haven't figured it out yet. Hopefully we can find something". 

Kevin Magnussen was also disappointed, fifteenth in the morning and seventeenth on the starting grid.

"In a way we predicted it, which doesn't justify the situation, but it's what we expected. We had oversteer, understeer, a little bit of everything. We are competitive people, we try to do our best in every session, but we couldn't do that today. Tomorrow we will take out everything we have available. We will try to be in the best position to take whatever comes our way".