Nico Hulkenberg’s eighth place finish in Las Vegas was all Haas needed to take P6 back from Alpine in the constructors’ standings, but it was a “very challenging” race for the American team as they struggled to maximise their tyre performance.
Pierre Gasly’s devastating retirement after qualifying in P3 for the Las Vegas Grand Prix helped Haas to eke out a one-point advantage over Alpine as Hulkenberg finished in the top 10, with Kevin Magnussen down in P12.
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Like most of the grid, the pair struggled with tyre degradation affecting their race pace, but nevertheless now have 50 points compared to their French rival’s 49 points in the increasingly tight battle for sixth.
Although Hulkenberg managed to pass Yuki Tsunoda in the latter stages of the 50-lap race, RB are still firmly in the mix, just four points behind Haas – with every point crucial for the three teams in the remaining races in Qatar and Abu Dhabi.
Hulkenberg eventually snatched P8 from Tsunoda with a crucial overtake
Speaking after the race, the German driver said: “I’m very pleased. P8 I think was the best we could achieve today – fifth best team so very happy about that. Clean race, good execution.
“As expected, it was very challenging on the tyre side with graining on the front axle especially, so I think that kept everyone occupied and busy. We came through that well and offset ourselves a little bit to our main competition. I think that worked well and the pace was also decent.”
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He also admitted that Haas and RB were well-matched when it came to their performance at the dazzling track, as demonstrated by his entertaining battle with Tsunoda in the dying laps of the race.
He said: “I think we had a small edge over them today but not much. It is tight, but it was good fun battling with him for a couple of laps.
“He was defending well down to Turn 14 down the Strip – they had really fast and good straight-line speed, and then good traction out of [Turn] 12 so it took me a couple of goes. It was good and fair racing.”
Magnussen’s tyre strategy contributed to him missing out on the points
Meanwhile, his team mate was the only competitor to carry out a one-stop race – and after making the switch from medium to hard tyres on Lap 17, Magnussen crossed the line in P12 on 33-lap old tyres.
“I don’t know,” the Dane responded when asked whether the unique strategy was worth the risk. “It’s always hard to say coming straight from the car – it didn’t look good, but maybe when you go and look at things sometimes it’s different.
“Certainly I think the pace was good on the hard tyre, just really bad on the graining on the medium so I really struggled then. Kept going on it and lost everything, and then had to build it back up with the hard. It didn’t feel like we got the best out of it.”
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