Haas managed secured its best ever qualifying result after securing a lockout of the third row of the grid at the Australian Grand Prix.
The strong pace of the car from pre-season testing, which highlighted the potential of the VF-18, was proven around the Albert Park circuit on Saturday afternoon, as both cars managed to secure a Q3 appearance for the first time since 2016.
Romain Grosjean was very happy with the behaviour of the car out on track and believes points are a strong possibility, he is also aware of how tough the battle to maintain their positions in Sunday's race could be.
"Everyone’s very happy and it reflects the hard work from everyone on the team, said Grosjean. "Our result confirmed a little bit what we saw in winter testing. I can push the car as much as I want, which obviously makes me very happy. It was a good job by Kevin (Magnussen) as well – getting both cars into the third row of the grid tomorrow.
"It’s going to be pretty amazing being there. Points could be possible. Obviously, we want to keep our positions. We’re starting in a good place, but we’ll see tomorrow what happens. This is a good start. We can be very proud, but we need to keep pushing."
Kevin Magnussen was also very pleased to have put his Haas well inside the top five and wants to capitalise on the opportunity his qualifying position to score some points for the team, the result for him marks the first time he has made a Q3 appearance since the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix in 2014 in his last race for McLaren.
“The car was nice to drive in qualifying. It was just there and performing. added the Dane. "I was able to push brake points – get off the brakes earlier and earlier with every lap. It wasn’t doing anything unexpected, which was really nice.
"I’m looking forward to tomorrow starting in P5. We have some quick guys behind us, and we’ll have to do well to keep it that way. We’ll be doing all we can to get a good result. We need a solid start to the season and we need to capitalise on today’s qualifying result.”
