MELBOURNE, Australia -- An impressive winter testing suggested Haas could be the new leader of the midfield pack and Friday in Melbourne went some distance in proving that theory.
Romain Grosjean was seventh quickest in the morning before jumping to sixth in the afternoon with a lap of 1:24.648 on the ultra-soft tyre, just 0.717s behind pacesetter Lewis Hamilton. The Frenchman's time was enough to dislodge Red Bull's Daniel Ricciardo from the top six but more importantly it was over half a second faster than Fernando Alonso's P8 time in the McLaren.
Grosjean says it is pleasing to see the testing form translate into a race weekend and while it's very early days is excited at the prospect of challenging for the mantle of Formula One's fourth-best team.
"Today is a very encouraging day and we managed to do most of our program, which is pretty amazing for the first day of the season," said Grosjean. "The baseline was good in Barcelona and we were looking forward to coming here with different conditions and a different track layout.
"Force India was pretty happy last year where they were so if we can end up in that position it will be amazing. It's going to be an interesting fight and hopefully we can stay clear of them."
With rain expected on Saturday in Melbourne, Friday's running could be somewhat irrelevant and Grosjean is already looking ahead.
"I've never driven the car in wet conditions so it's going to be a first tomorrow," he said. "Rain offers up opportunities sometimes so we'll jump on them and see what is feasible."
While it was all smiles for Grosjean, on the other side of the Haas garage there was significant work going into teammate Kevin Magnussen's car.
The Dane suffered a throttle pedal issue during FP1 which halted his running and eventually ending the day with 15 less laps under his belt than Grosjean. However, team boss Gunther Steiner expects Magnussen to bounce back ahead of Saturday's qualifying session.
"Kevin had a few issues. It was a small problem with big consequences for him," Steiner said. "Everything on this car, as soon as you need to go inside, it takes hours and then you need to fix it quickly.
"In the end he's confident enough that he says I learned enough so tomorrow should be a better day."
Rolex Australian Grand Prix Schedule on ESPN Networks (all times Eastern)
Thur., March 22
Practice 1 9 p.m. ESPN3
Friday, March 23
Practice 2 1 a.m. ESPN3
Practice 3 10 p.m. ESPNEWS
Sat., March 24
Qualifying 2 a.m. ESPN2
Sun., March 25
On the Grid 12:30 a.m. ESPN2
Race 1 a.m. ESPN2
Race (encore) 11 a.m. ESPN2
Race (encore) 1 p.m. ESPNEWS
Race (encore) 9 p.m. ESPNEWS