Romain Grosjean recorded the American team’s best-ever grid position by qualifying sixth in Melbourne, ending up four tenths of a second clear of Felipe Massa’s Williams.

Massa himself said he was surprised about the Grosjean lap, while Williams’ technical chief Paddy Lowe was full of praise for the job his rivals had done.

“The Haas was a surprise and well done to them,” said Lowe. “We hadn’t seen it coming because Romain didn’t get a great lap in Q2.”

Grosjean admitted he was not expecting such a strong performance after “struggling to find my marks” in testing.

“Some of the guys were optimistic,” he said. “Things were not really going the way I wanted.

“The first lap I did here, I felt the car was better and the first run was good so we can build from there

“From seventh realistically, because [Daniel] Ricciardo went out, to 14th is pretty tight.

“It is going to be intense.”

Massa disappointed

Massa, who managed just six laps in second practice because of an electric problem, said he was “a little bit” disappointed to wind up behind Haas.

Williams was the strongest midfield team in testing and was predicted to be just ahead in the fight to be fourth behind Mercedes, Ferrari and Red Bull.

“I was a little bit surprised because I was in front of him in Q1 and Q2,” said Massa. “Maybe I expected to be a little bit better, like I was in Barcelona.

“Maybe we could have gone one tenth quicker, but not fourth tenths.”

Lap of his life

Toro Rosso had also been in the mix for the fight at the front of the midfield, and ninth fastest Daniil Kvyat said he hoped that Grosjean had simply managed to pull a miracle out of the bag.

The Russian said: “They [Haas] were normal in Q1 and Q2, but then in Q3 it was a very strong lap. Massa felt within the reach, definitely. It was peanuts difference.

“But he [Grosjean] looked quite impressive. Let’s hope it’s just a lap of his life.”

Additional reporting by Andrew van Leeuwen, Erwin Jaeggi and Jonathan Noble