A delighted Romain Grosjean says his Haas team won ‘Formula 1 Grand Prix 2′ after the Frenchman came home in an impressive sixth position in Sunday’s Austrian Grand Prix.
Grosjean started the race in seventh place and benefitted from Max Verstappen’s retirement on the opening lap.
He enjoyed a close fight with the Force India of Sergio Perez for sixth position, Grosjean triumphed, in the end, to take his best result in the sport since his second race for the Haas team in Bahrain last year.
“We were best of the rest – so we won Formula 1 Grand Prix 2,” said Grosjean.
“It was really good, really strong first half when I was P4, a fun few laps, like 2013, I could play with the car in front and make some good positions.
“Obviously there was no chance to keep Kimi and Lewis behind but I had a great fight with Perez, he was pretty fast and we had to push all the time. The car behaved well.”
Grosjean overtakes his team-mate, Kevin Magnussen, to climb to 13th in the drivers’ standings. Magnussen suffered a hydraulic failure which prematurely ended his Austrian Grand Prix.
“I didn’t know he retired,” Grosjean said when asked if he was worried he would suffer the same fate.
“I knew he had a suspension issue [in qualifying] so I was trying to stay off the kerbs, we know it’s been a track where we’ve lost a lot of parts on the car during practice.
“The kerbs are vibrating a lot – they destroy the car, something to think of. But I honestly don’t know what happened to him.”
The 31-year-old is already looking to next Sunday’s British Grand Prix, where Haas will bring an upgrade in an attempt to leapfrog Toro Rosso for sixth in the constructors’ championship.
“There are a few things we need to improve but when we get the tyres to work and the right downforce level and the right drag level we are very competitive,” he said.
“It shows that when we get everything to work on the car we are strong. It’s just the experience because everything is a window, which we are missing a bit sometimes. But it’s only our 28th or 29th race.
“We should have an update for Silverstone, so that should be good fun.”
