Former Formula 1 driver Romain Grosjean congratulated Haas rookie Oliver Bearman after the British driver secured the team’s joint best-ever finish with a fourth place in Mexico.
After joining the championship in 2016, Haas has only scored as high as fourth once before. In the American outfit's debut season, Grosjean, partnered with Esteban Gutierrez, secured a sixth-place finish in the season-opening Australian Grand Prix. The French-Swiss driver went on to claim a fifth-place finish at the Bahrain Grand Prix the same year. But it was two years later at the 2018 Austrian Grand Prix that Grosjean secured a fourth-place finish with his team-mate at the time, Kevin Magnussen, behind him in fifth.
Bearman successfully converted a ninth-place start to finish fourth in Mexico, prompting Grosjean to share a message of support following the race.
"Amazing to see @olliebearman P4 matching @haasf1team best ever result! Ayao doing an amazing and I love it," he wrote alongside a photo of himself with the British driver.
Bearman was emotional after walking away with 12 points for the team.
"Oh it feels great, you know I'm really happy. That's our joint best finish in the history of the team," he explained to Sky Sports F1. "We had a great race, of course I was lucky to be where I was before the first stop, but actually we had the pace to stay there.
"I held off Max in the first stint, I held off the Mercs in the second and I held off the McLaren in the third one, so I was under a lot of pressure. I spent I think more time looking in my rearview mirrors than in front, but you know that's sometimes how it has to be and I'm really, really proud of the team because that really validates all the hard work we've been doing over the past few races."
With four rounds remaining in the season, Bearman sits 13th in the drivers' standings with 32 points.
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