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.
South Korean giants T1, led by “Faker,” won their fifth League of Legends (LoL) world championship crown in London on Saturday, beating China’s Bilibili Gaming (BLG) in a thrilling final. The teams were locked at 2-2 at a packed O2 arena, but T1 clinched game five to make it back-to-back titles after nearly four hours of tense action. China’s BLG started strongly, taking the first game before T1 struck back to level. The Chinese team pulled ahead again at 2-1 only for their opponents to hit back again and go on to take the decider. Faker, who won the Most
Taiwan’s Hsieh Su-wei and Belgian partner Elise Mertens on Monday notched up their first win in the doubles group stage of the WTA Finals in Riyadh to keep their semi-final hopes alive, while Taiwan’s Chan Hao-ching and Russian partner Veronika Kudermetova were aiming to record their first victory after press time last night. Third seeds Hsieh and Mertens came back from a disheartening opening-day loss to Australia’s Ellen Perez and Nicole Melichar-Martinez to defeat top seeds Ukraine’s Lyudmyla Kichenok and Latvia’s Jelena Ostapenko, the women’s doubles world No. 3 and 4 respectively. The 6-1, 6-3 victory at King Saud University Indoor Arena
Amber Glenn overcame a fall and her own doubts to win a maiden Grand Prix figure skating title on Saturday at the Grand Prix de France. The American skater had the lead from Friday’s short program. That and the support of the crowd got her through a tough free skate in which she fell on a triple flip and put a hand onto the ice to steady herself on two other jumps. “I didn’t feel that great out there today, but I really tried, and the audience really got me through that last half when I was doubting myself,” Glenn
WORLD SERIES: ‘The individuals that were involved in that last night was a very small segment of the east Los Angeles community,’ the Los Angeles county sheriff said Rowdy crowds took to the streets of Los Angeles after the LA Dodgers won the Major League Baseball (MLB) World Series, setting a city bus on fire, breaking into stores and lighting fireworks. A dozen arrests were reported by police on Thursday, but officials said that most fans celebrated peacefully. Video showed revelers throwing objects at police in downtown LA as sirens blared and officers told them to leave the area on Wednesday night after the Dodgers defeated the New York Yankees in Game 5 of the MLB World Series at Giants Stadium in New York. Another video showed someone standing atop