Haas admits home race point took "a little luck"

Romain Grosjean ended a frustrating run of 11th places for the team by finishing in P10, helped by the retirements of Max Verstappen and Kimi Raikkonen - Haas's first point since the Austrian Grand Prix.

“We started off optimistic, and then we struggled,” Haas told Motorsport.com. “Our cars were a good half a second off the pace we should have been at, we just couldn’t figure it out.

"Obviously in Japan we qualified in Q3, this race we qualified Q1 and Q2, so we weren’t really happy with it, and we knew it was going to be a tough fight.

“Starting the race we were a little bit like, ‘this is going to be a difficult one.’ Esteban [Gutierrez] had a brake problem which took him out early, but fortunately we had a little bit of luck with Grosjean.

"He did a great job, we struck to the strategy, it all worked out really well, and we had a little bit of luck go our away with attrition, and we wound up with a point. I was kinda hoping that when [Felipe] Massa and [Fernando] Alonso banged together, that would help us too!”

Regarding the reception he had from US fans, Haas added: “From what I see out there on pit road, everybody’s been really enthusiastic, a lot of people came up and said hello. It’s been good.”

Grosjean glad to end scoreless streak

Grosjean, meanwhile, said that the point scored in Austin was a timely boost for Haas as it reaches the closing stages of an up-and-down first season.

"We were lucky that a few cars retired in front, but in the end we needed to finish the race and to push for it, so that was great," said the Frenchman.

"To score a point in front of our home crowd, pretty pleased with that, and for the guys as well. It’s been a long time that we didn’t score any points.”

“It’s a great feeling to be able to score points at the end of the season, it means a lot, the way the team’s worked. I could see a drop in form, so hopefully it makes [Gene] happy, it makes the fans happy."