Isack Hadjar, brilliant but demanding: “I know I could have done better than 7th”

At the start of the season, Isack Hadjar aimed to quickly get close to his teammate, within a few tenths of a second at most. It took him two weekends to dominate him in style in qualifying. The Frenchman had a brilliant session in Shanghai: first finishing 2nd in Q1, he easily made it through Q2 to secure the first Q3 of his career.

In the last segment of the session, he set the 7th fastest time, just 0 seconds behind the pole position achieved by Oscar piastri. The Parisian has once again overtaken Yuki tsunoda, beaten by his young teammate in Q1, Q2 and Q3. On Friday, Hadjar had already shown signs of great things during the sprint qualification, but a small mishap on his only lap of SQ2 forced him to start 15th in the Sprint. This Saturday, he managed to line up everything to earn the right to start from the fourth row.

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"I think it was a similar session yesterday, except this time I managed to make it happen." the 20-year-old pilot rejoices on Canal+."I'm happy I didn't make any mistakes. The performance was already there, but I had to put everything together, and on this circuit it's so complicated... There are gusts of wind that make it unpredictable at times. So, I'm satisfied."

Despite his remarkable and noted performance on a circuit he is discovering this weekend, Isack Hadjar was not entirely happy when he got out of his car. "On my lap, I made a few small mistakes, there was still time to make up so I know I could have done better than seventh, that's why I'm a little disappointed." regrets the number 6, having in fact moved to 0”142 from fifth place Lewis Hamilton and 0”262 from the fourth time of Max Verstappen. From there to give him hope for Sunday? "When I see the standings, I know we're not going to fight with the guys at the front." assures Hadjar. "We don't have the race pace for it. On the other hand, scoring my first points in Formula 1, that would be cool.

After the great performance shown by Racing Bulls in race pace during the sprint race, there is hope for Isack Hadjar.