'Crazy' to think there are F1 cars faster than Haas's - Magnussen

The Haas drivers emerged as the class of the midfield in qualifying for the first F1 race of the season, with Romain Grosjean and Magnussen qualifying sixth and seventh behind the two Mercedes, two Ferraris, and Max Verstappen's Red Bull.

Magnussen said he was deeply impressed with the performance of Haas's car.

"I think generally all the cars are stronger than last year, but it's a very good car," he said.

"And it is crazy to think that there are other cars that are faster than this, because it feels very, very fast.

"We've been hopeful of our potential, but it's always a nerve-racking time because you think you know where you are, but then you want to go and prove it on track.

"Today we did."

Magnussen said he thinks he could have matched Grosjean's pace, admitting a mistake in Q3 cost him a couple of tenths.

"It was shit lap," he said.

"I didn't get everything out of it that I should have, and made a big mistake in Q1 that meant that I had to use another set [of tyres] to get through.

"That means you have only one set for Q3, which is crazy, because we should have been so easily through on just one set in Q1.

"That was my bad, and then you do a lap, you have only one shot in Q3 and that wasn't too pretty.

"[I lost a] couple of tenths easily. I braked too late in Turn 6, luckily the car has good grip, so it was just turning in anyway, got back on power - but I lost quite a lot of time there."

Grosjean said he was not surprised by Haas' impressive qualifying pace, revealing the team kept some performance up its sleeve on Friday.

"Because we knew we were strong, and the car felt good, we knew how much we had in margin in term of engine-mode usage," said Grosjean, when asked why Haas had not showed its performance earlier.

"We did a little bit in FP3 just to get top speed and on braking points, but then we unleashed everything in quali."