Romain Grosjean has hailed his sixth-place finish for the Haas team "unbelievable", comparing it to a victory.
Grosjean managed to fend off challenges from Nico Hulkenberg and Valtteri Bottas to get his Haas to the finish, scoring eight points in the process – more than Manor (formerly Marussia/Virgin), Caterham and HRT managed over the course of five seasons combined.
"A very good day at the office," said the Frenchman. "This feels like a win. For all the guys who worked so hard over the last few weeks, this is unbelievable.
"We were unlucky yesterday, but got a bit lucky today with the red flag. Still, we were able to hold off the Williams and the Force India.
"We didn’t have much set-up [time] on the car. It was a case of, off you go and see what happens.
"This is an unbelievable feeling. The guys did an amazing job and I told them, this is like a win for all of us. First race and here we are, P6. A happy day."
Team owner Gene Haas thanked all those involved in the project and said the result was proof of their hard work.
"A lot of people have contributed to this, so we have to thank all the people, starting with Guenther Steiner who put all this together and kept pushing me to go out and try this. The Ferrari people have been excellent. They’ve helped us a lot. Dallara helped us build the chassis.
"There’s a new F1 team on the block and it’s an American F1 team, so we’re real proud of that. But these other teams are pretty dang good at what they do. I wouldn’t sit here and say we’re going to be in front of them all the time, but today was a good day."
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