NASCAR team owner breaks record with Formula 1 pole
By Asher Fair
Stewart-Haas Racing NASCAR team owner Gene Haas saw his Formula 1 team take their first ever pole position ahead of their 143rd start.
Haas timed Friday afternoon’s wet-dry Formula 1 qualifying session for Saturday afternoon’s Sao Paulo Grand Prix sprint qualifying race just right, and it resulted in a surprising maiden pole position for Kevin Magnussen at Interlagos Circuit.
Magnussen had set the fastest time in the third and final round of qualifying at the 15-turn, 2.677-mile (4.308-kilometer) Sao Paulo, Brazil road course during his initial run on slick tires before Mercedes’ George Russell ran into trouble and caused a red flag.
During the ensuing stoppage, the rain started to fall, and it became apparent that there would be no way for anybody to top Magnussen’s time, given the conditions and the fact that there were only a few minutes remaining in the session when it eventually resumed.
The pole position was both the first for Magnussen and the Haas team as a whole.
Haas, owned by Stewart-Haas Racing NASCAR team co-owner Gene Haas, entered Formula 1 in 2016, and this Sunday afternoon’s 71-lap race is set to be their 143rd race.
Never before had a team taken pole position for the first time after 142 starts. British American Racing (BAR), which entered Formula 1 in 1999, took their first pole position ahead of their 87th start at Imola back in 2004. Jenson Button took the pole position, the first of his own career, for that race, the San Marino Grand Prix.
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Tune in to ESPN News tomorrow afternoon at 2:25 p.m. ET for the live broadcast of the 24-lap Sao Paulo Grand Prix sprint qualifying race from Interlagos Circuit, and tune in to ABC on Sunday afternoon at 12:55 p.m. ET for the live broadcast of the Grand Prix itself. Begin a free trial of FuboTV now if you haven’t already done so!