It was an afternoon to remember in Imola. The complicated weather forecast caused a record-breaking number of red flags and opened up the possibilities for everybody to clinch a good position for tomorrow.

Kevin Magnussen was among those who managed to do the unexpected today by securing a P4 ahead of tomorrow´s sprint race just minutes after saving his cars from hitting the barriers. The Dane saved the day for the team after his teammate couldn´t make it into q3 and qualified 12^th.

Team Principal Guenther Steiner is really happy with the performance of his drivers under this conditions: “A very good day today. They were very challenging weather conditions and I know that is the same for everyone but after Australia we really needed this, and we bounced back. In Australia, we didn’t have a fantastic weekend but this weekend we all started right on Friday morning, confidence levels were high. Finishing with Kevin in P4 is fantastic – it’s another best for Haas F1 Team. For Mick, he was almost there, just a little bit missing but P12 is not a bad position to be starting the race so starting fourth and 12th, let’s see what we can do tomorrow.”

Mick Schumacher explained after the session that a mistake cost him the ticket to Q3 but remains hopeful: “A mistake at Turn 7 led to me losing over a second so I think we would’ve been through. It’s a shame but now we have two more races to come and hopefully we’ll be able to fight our way  through – the car feels great. Already in Melbourne we were able to fight pretty hard with the cars around us and one thing which was very positive was that we were able to keep the tyres alive for quite a while. It’s all to play for tomorrow and hopefully we have a bit of luck on our side to be able to maybe get into the points.”

The hero of the day, Kevin Magnussen couldn´t hide his happiness after scoring the best result in a long time for the team: “First of all, what a result. It’s great, it feels amazing, I can’t really believe it – it’s that close to top-three. P4 is the best qualifying for Haas ever, so I’m really proud of that and the team. I went off, lost the car and went all the way through the gravel. I managed to just keep it going and do a bit of a four-point turn and get back on track. The car was just phenomenal, and I can’t believe we’re P4. It’s looking like it’s going to be dry tomorrow so we’ll just do the best we can, I don’t know what to expect. We’ll go and have fun and give it everything we’ve got like we did today.”