Isack Hadjar recorded his best Grand Prix finish of the season in Canada, coming home fifth for Red Bull behind Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc. But the result does not tell the full story of a chaotic race that included two penalties that cost the Frenchman a huge chunk of time.
He admitted afterwards that there were too many “mistakes” during the race, but knew at least why he made them – though such was his pace advantage over the midfield, the penalties did not cost him a place at the finish.
The Grand Prix started well, with Red Bull putting Hadjar on the soft tyre – which proved to be the right compound for the conditions. He got away cleanly, and there was no repeat of the reliability issues that cost him a chance of points in the Sprint.
The 21-year-old managed to leapfrog Leclerc in the pit stop period, but soon came under pressure from the Ferrari man – and this is where his problems started. He was reported to the stewards for a late change of direction when defending, and was handed a 10-second time penalty for a defensive move he apologised for post-race.
“I didn’t mean to send [Leclerc] in the grass obviously, he’s a very clean driver, so I think I just apologised because it was a bit stupid,” Hadjar said afterwards.
“I don’t have the same feeling as [Saturday], I didn’t feel comfortable at all in the car.
“[Saturday] in the Sprint, Qualifying, I had very good pace, I knew what was going on. Today, I couldn’t make it happen. This causes then – I have to focus very hard on keeping it on the track and making mistakes so yeah…”
Hadjar was also penalised with a stop-go penalty for failing to slow sufficiently under yellow flags, but such was his gap over Franco Colapinto behind, he was able to hold onto fifth place.
The penalties cost him any chance of chasing down Leclerc for fourth after the Monegasque finally found a way through, and he came home a lap down.
But there were positives for Hadjar, who came much closer to matching the pace of Max Verstappen this weekend and gave a better performance overall than in Miami. He was happier with the set-up of his car in Montreal, until Red Bull tweaked a few things with the threat of rain on Sunday.
“The car was very fast but hard to drive compared to [Saturday] when I felt more comfortable, so I couldn’t push as hard as I wanted.
“[Saturday] was the best day of the year for me at least, I had a very strong feeling [in the car] that I want to keep happening for the rest of the year and if it does, we will be fighting ahead,” he added.
“The overall car performance this weekend was very positive – we took a big step forward since Miami and made the most of the weekend. I hope we can keep the same momentum for Monaco.”
