Isack Hadjar described his qualifying performance at the Dutch Grand Prix as his best lap of the year after he secured a career-best fourth place on the grid.
The Racing Bulls rookie has 22 points to his name but has only scored a solitary point over the past five races, courtesy of eighth place in the Sprint at Spa. On Saturday at Zandvoort, he put himself in prime position to add to his tally with an impressive final lap that put him fourth behind the McLarens and Max Verstappen, and says the car’s handling allowed him to take risks on his final attempt.
“To be honest, it was the car being exactly like I wanted,” Hadjar said. “It was responding really well, especially on that final lap. Probably we got a bit lucky with the wind gusts; I don’t know, we need to look at the data. But I pulled an amazing lap and it stuck because the car was great.
“It’s probably the best lap I’ve had this year because it’s a very hard track, really demanding. And I put it all on the line, especially that final corner. I thought I did pretty well there to actually gain one more tenth. That was special.”
The wind was in Hadjar’s sails on Saturday. Clive Rose/Getty Images
Expanding on the impact of the wind, Hadjar added: “Honestly, it’s a horrible feeling when you’re in the car and you’re being hit by one. You can lose up to two tenths in a single corner. It’s very annoying, so you need to be a bit lucky.”
Although Zandvoort is seen as a tight track with few overtaking opportunities, Hadjar believes the DRS setup will leave him vulnerable to any quicker cars, but doesn’t want to get caught up in unnecessary incidents.
“To be fair, I don’t think it’s really difficult to overtake here. Looking at how long the straight is and the DRS zone starts very early. So if they have more pace, they will overtake, and that’s it – we need to accept it and be smart.
“We limited mileage yesterday, but looking at Liam [Lawson], he was pretty fast yesterday. The car is healthy. It’s fast on one lap, so it will be fast on many more laps.”
