Haas F1 Team boss Guenther Steiner on Friday savored a rare moment of success, as his Formula One backmarkers pulled off an astonishing first pole position with Kevin Magnussen at the Sao Paulo Grand Prix.
The Italian, whose direct approach and colorful language has made him a cult hero for millions through the popular Netflix Drive to Survive docuseries, reacted in typical fashion.
“When it rains soup, you need to have a spoon ready,” the Italian told Sky Sports television. “And we had the spoon ready today.”
Photo: EPA-EFE
Magnussen was first out of the pit lane in the final qualifying shoot-out for yesterday’s sprint race, benefiting from the best conditions before George Russell spun off in his Mercedes and brought a halt to the session.
Rain then meant nobody else could go quicker than Magnussen’s time set on slick tires.
The pole was his first at the 140th attempt, but in his 100th race for Haas, and also the first by a Danish driver in Formula One.
“These are things that if you dream about it, you are scared to dream about it,” said Steiner, whose American team owner Gene Haas was yesterday to turn 70 and has more often than not been presented with a fork when the occasion demands a spoon.
“The whole team is trying hard since seven years and then circumstances let us pull this one off. I think it was not luck. It was well deserved from the driver and team being on the right tires at the right time,” he said.
Haas are eighth out of 10 teams in the constructors’ standings and the surreal afternoon was highlighted by their other driver Mick Schumacher qualifying last for a race that determines today’s grand prix grid.
Last year, with Schumacher and Magnussen’s now-departed Russian predecessor Nikita Mazepin, Haas failed to score a point all season and ended last.
The team had dropped Magnussen at the end of 2020, but Steiner brought the Dane back this season when oligarch’s son Mazepin was ruled out by sanctions triggered by Russia’s February invasion of Ukraine.
Magnussen said the pole was more surprising and felt better than his second place on his debut with McLaren Racing in Australia in 2014.
“In this sport you go up and down, or at least I do. It’s a lot of fun when it’s days like this,” he said.
North Korea’s FIFA Under-17 Women’s World Cup-winning team on Saturday received a heroes’ welcome back in the capital, Pyongyang, with hundreds of people on the streets to celebrate their success. They had defeated Spain on penalties after a 1-1 draw in the U17 World Cup final in the Dominican Republic on Nov. 3. It was the second global title in two months for secretive North Korea — largely closed off to the outside world; they also lifted the FIFA U20 Women’s World Cup in September. Officials and players’ families gathered at Pyongyang International Airport to wave flowers and North Korea flags as the
Taiwan’s top table tennis player Lin Yun-ju made his debut in the US professional table tennis scene by taking on a new role as a team’s co-owner. On Wednesday, Major League Table Tennis (MLTT), founded in September last year, announced on its official Web site that Lin had become part of the ownership group of the Princeton Revolution, one of the league’s eight teams. MLTT chief executive officer Flint Lane described Lin’s investment as “another great milestone for table tennis in America,” saying that the league’s “commitment to growth and innovation is drawing attention from the best in the sport, and we’re
Coco Gauff of the US on Friday defeated top-ranked Aryna Sabalenka 7-6 (7/4), 6-3 to set up a showdown with Olympic champion Zheng Qinwen in the final of the WTA Finals, while in the doubles, Taiwan’s Chan Hao-ching was eliminated. Gauff generated six break points to Belarusian Sabalenka’s four and built on early momentum in the opening set’s tiebreak that she carried through to the second set. She is the youngest player at 20 to make the final at the WTA Finals since Denmark’s Caroline Wozniacki in 2010. Zheng earlier defeated Wimbledon champion Barbora Krejcikova of the Czech Republic 6-3, 7-5 to book
For King Faisal, a 20-year-old winger from Ghana, the invitation to move to Brazil to play soccer “was a dream.” “I believed when I came here, it would help me change the life of my family and many other people,” he said in Sao Paulo. For the past year and a half, he has been playing on the under-20s squad for Sao Paulo FC, one of South America’s most prominent clubs. He and a small number of other Africans are tearing across pitches in a country known as the biggest producer and exporter of soccer stars in the world, from Pele to Neymar. For
RSS