06/09/2020
NEWS STORY
Haas F1 Team driver Romain Grosjean was classified 12th while Kevin Magnussen was forced into retirement at the Italian Grand Prix, held at the Autodromo Nazionale Monza on Sunday.
Grosjean took the start from 16th on the Pirelli P Zero Yellow medium tires and maintained his position on the opening lap of the race.
A hefty accident for Ferrari's Charles Leclerc on lap 23 of 53 brought out the red flag though fortunately he walked away unscathed. Race Control then opted to take a standing restart for the first time in Formula One history, with everyone again lining up on the grid.
Grosjean took the restart from 13th on the White hard tires and preserved that set of rubber through to the checkered flag, gaining a spot to take 12th.
Magnussen started from 15th on the medium tires but sustained front wing damage on the opening lap and dropped to the rear of the field as he stopped for repairs.
Magnussen re-emerged on hard tires, with a new front-wing, but after completing 17 laps was forced to halt his VF-20 due to a suspected power unit issue.
At the front of the field a wild grand prix was settled in favor of Alpha Tauri's Pierre Gasly, who registered his maiden Formula One victory, in front of McLaren's Carlos Sainz and Racing Point's Lance Stroll.
Haas F1 Team maintains P9 in the Constructors' Championship with one point.
Romain Grosjean: "Well, sadly that's our pace - and we finished where we did. It was a tough race for us, I drove my heart out as always. I had a fun battle with George (Russell), we pushed the limits to the maximum. Everything was great, the tires, the brakes, the energy and so on. I think it's been a more important day for Pierre (Gasly) today, it was a fantastic win for France, and for him after a tough year last year. It's been 24 years since there was a French winner in Formula One - since Olivier Panis in Monaco in 1996. It's beautiful, I'm happy for that."
Kevin Magnussen: "I got caught in the middle of a three-wide situation at turn one on the first lap, I was sandwiched and ended up having my front-wing damaged. I had to pit, came back out with a new front-wing, and I had really, really good pace. We didn't expect to have that level of pace. That makes it even harder to be out of the race so early. It's not great of course, especially as we saw how good the pace was - we were matching the McLarens. I would have liked to have seen what we could have done in the race. It was pretty eventful. It was exactly the kind of race I'd loved to have been a part of."
Guenther Steiner: "In general, I'd say it was quite an exciting race today, and for us - well, we did the best that we could. Unfortunately, we had a power unit issue with Kevin (Magnussen) meaning he couldn't get to the end. He had damage on his front wing on the first lap, so anyway he was already behind. We fought for what we were able to fight for and we leave with what we deserve at the moment."