Finishing fifth in the Canadian Grand Prix, Isack Hadjar achieved his best result with Red Bull so far, but things could have ended much worse.
Engaged in a fierce battle with Charles Leclerc after the pitstops, the Frenchman put up a very borderline defence at the end of the back straight, with the Monegasque driver narrowly avoiding a crash.
While the Ferrari driver subsequently got ahead, the stewards still handed Hadjar a 10-second penalty, which, however, did not change the Red Bull driver’s final result.
“I was too harsh and if anything it wasn’t even on purpose,” he explained after the race. “I just got confused where he was heading, so I didn’t mean to send him in the grass obviously, he’s a very clean driver, so I think I just apologised because it was a bit stupid.”
While Leclerc admitted he had quite a scare at the time, he didn’t hold it against his rival for long. Finishing fourth after a difficult weekend, the Ferrari driver quickly moved on, appreciating Hadjar’s immediate apology.
“I think the penalty is deserved,” he told Canal+. “It was a bit too close. Isack apologised, but these things happen. It’s hard to judge with these cars because there’s such a difference in speed that, in the mirrors, you don’t realise how little you can actually see.
“I think he saw me coming and realised he went a little too far. But it happens, and it’s happened to me in the past too. So that’s how it is – it was close.
Charles Leclerc quickly forgave Isack Hadjar.
Photo by: Alessio Morgese / NurPhoto via Getty Images
“I’m happy to have finished the race. And quite honestly, it’s a miracle to finish fourth on a weekend as bad as this one. Because for my part, I never had a feel for the car at any point over the weekend. Lewis was, of course, exceptional all weekend long, but I was struggling. I had a really, really hard time getting the tyres up to temperature.”
Hadjar puzzled by the loss of pace
On top of the penalty for the incident with Leclerc, Hadjar also got a stop-and-go penalty for not slowing down sufficiently under yellow flags – yet that still did not affect his final result. Admitting he doesn’t disagree with the stewards’ decisions, he was still unhappy with his own race for a different reason.
“I don’t really understand where the pace went, because I really felt like I was struggling a lot out there. Yesterday I felt great in the car and now it’s very hard to drive,” he said.
“In a way, I felt like I was back in FP1, to be honest. Not pleasant to drive and I needed to really dig deep because I felt comfortable in the first few laps and then they opened the gap and I couldn’t match the pace, whereas yesterday I was easily there, so no clue.
“There was zero degradation today. It was very consistent, easy to keep the lap times going and on my side I felt like even when they switched on I still didn’t have the pace. I have no clue.”
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