‘Flawless’ Haas closes on Renault after Spa haul

Haas moved to within six points of Renault in the battle for fourth place in the Formula 1 constructors’ championship after both Romain Grosjean and Kevin Magnussen finished inside the top 10 in Sunday’s Belgian Grand Prix.

Grosjean qualified fifth on the grid in Saturday’s wet qualifying session before taking P7 in the race, with teammate Kevin Magnussen following home in P8 after making a rocket start to pass both Daniel Ricciardo and Kimi Raikkonen, dodging the start-line melee that saw seven drivers make contact.

The result saw Haas pick up 14 points, allowing it to move to within six points of Renault in the battle for fourth place in the constructors’ championship and to lead the midfield pack, coming as a boost to the team.

“I’m happy about our points, I’m not happy that [Renault] didn’t have points,” Haas team principal Gunther Steiner said after the race.

“For sure it was a good day for us today .We’re getting closer. We just need to get a little bit more closer, and then go by. It’s a good day.

“The whole race for us, everyone did a solid, good job. There was no mistake from anywhere. 

“It was for us a flawless race, so I’m very happy.”

Looking ahead to this weekend’s Italian Grand Prix at Monza, Steiner said that while the race presented an opportunity for Haas to get the jump on Renault in the standings, he knew it would not be an easy fight to win.

“It’s an opportunity, I don’t know if it’s a good one, I’ll tell you that after Monza. There’s a lot of things to be done until we do it,” Steiner said.

“For sure we try, but as I always say, Renault, they are a good team. They will fight for it, they will not hand us over fourth.

“I think they had a downer here like we will have a downer when we get to the end of the season. They can be strong again at Monza like they are normally, so it will be a harder battle.

“I don’t know how Monza is for us, I don’t know what the others ones have cooked up for there. We will see on Saturday.”