Grosjean: Haas “won Formula 1 Grand Prix 2” in Austria

Grosjean made a strong start, and ran as high as fourth before giving up positions to Kimi Raikkonen and Lewis Hamilton. He finished sixth, the last car on the lead lap.

“It was really good, really strong first half when I was P4,” said Grosjean. “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.

“We were best of the rest – so we won Formula 1 Grand Prix 2!”

Finding the sweet spot

Grosjean says the upturn in Haas’s fortunes this weekend was due to getting the car into the correct performance windows, it terms of tyres and downforce.

“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 28^th or 29^th race.

“We should have an update for Silverstone, so that should be good fun.”

The only downside to Haas’s day was Kevin Magnussen’s retirement, when his car expired in a cloud of smoke and he was told not to shift gears as he toured back to the pits.

When asked if he was worried that a similar problem might affect his car, Grosjean replied: “I didn’t know he retired.

“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.”