'We won Formula 1 Grand Prix 2!' - Grosjean

Romain Grosjean was in an upbeat frame of mind after his sixth-place finish finish in the Austrian Grand Prix for Haas F1. Not just for the result, which was his best of the season to date, but for the VF-17's overall competitiveness, which saw him running ahead of a Ferrari and threatening a Red Bull early on. There was also no recurrence of the brake issues that have dogged Grosjean in particular this season.

"It was a pretty strong first lap; I was P4 and then Kimi [Raikkonen] and Lewis [Hamilton] passed me but we pushed hard all the way – that's the kind of racing we like," the Frenchman told NBC Sports' Will Buxton. "I was happy with the car all weekend. There are some things we need to improve, clearly, but I feel that we were best of the rest – so we won Formula 1 Grand Prix 2!"

Related Stories

The usual best-of-the-rest team this year has been Force India, which is a comfortable fourth in the standings behind Mercedes, Ferrari and Red Bull, but neither of its drivers were any threat to Grosjean this time as Sergio Perez and Esteban Ocon finished seventh and eighth, respectively.

"It shows that when we get everything to work on the car, we are strong," Grosjean added. "It's just the experience of getting every time, everything in the window – it's only our 28th, 29th race ever, so we cannot ask for everything. But it was good – Silverstone's going to be really good fun. We should have an update on the car as well, so looking forward to that."

Teammate Kevin Magnussen didn't share Grosjean's enthusiasm, delivering an expletive-laden radio message after his frustrating race ended with a suspected hydraulics issue. Still, the Haas team had plenty to be satisfied with after seeing its Constructor's points total climb to 29, matching the total for its entire first campaign of 2016.