Fortunately, Racing Bulls have pulled away in the fight for 6th place in the Constructors' Championship (90 pts), because Aston Martin (72 pts) aims for a significant comeback in Qatar thanks to Fernando Alonso, fourth on the starting grid. While the Spaniard will have a tough time keeping up with – or even overtaking – the top drivers, Isack Hadjar will have to fight his way back to secure a place among the top eight, which would earn him points.
The Frenchman undoubtedly had the pace to qualify on one of the first four rows, but a small mistake prevented him from participating in SQ3. While on his final run in SQ2, the rookie crossed the line with the 10th fastest time before being almost immediately demoted one place. His time had been deleted for exceeding track limits at Turn 8.
"I attacked hard to get through. I got through, but honestly, I completely forgot about the track limits here." the Racing Bulls driver admitted to Canal+"It's still a track where you're naturally penalized by the gravel if you go off the track. I lost more time than anything else. I hadn't thought of that at the time."
A small mistake with unfortunate consequences, as Hadjar will start 11th, behind the Williams from Alex Albon and Classic Ferrari for sale de Charles Leclerc. Two cars that look tough to overtake, but the Frenchman remains satisfied with his Racing Bulls. "The car reacts as I expected," He said. “I expected to be more competitive, but I didn’t expect the Aston Martins to be faster, for example. But otherwise, the car is in the game, it’s fast. It’s so close here…”
Let's hope for his sake that the coin lands on the right side in Sprint so that he can go and grab the points.
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