Isack Hadjar has pinpointed exactly what he needs to work on after he was left frustrated with one particular element of his race at Imola, despite what he described as a near “perfect” Grand Prix that saw him finish ninth to pick up two vital points for Racing Bulls.
Hadjar’s weekend did not start well, the rookie spinning into the barriers before beaching his car in the gravel in practice. He seemed to have put that behind him in Qualifying when he made Q3, only for an error on his final flying run to potentially cost him a couple of grid slots.
But he put all of that behind him with a superb showing in the Grand Prix – even if that did not go exactly to plan either.
Hadjar ran towards the front of the field for times on Sunday
“It was again a difficult start for me, we need to work on that and that is the main point. The rest was perfect,” Hadjar said.
“We couldn’t have done better tyre management, the pace was strong, still not as fast as the Williams on the medium – we have some work to do there. But strategy was good so I’m happy.”
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Hadjar dropped two places off the line, but was able to make them up thanks to a good strategy that saw him rise all the way to sixth at one point – the Frenchman, like race winner Max Verstappen, able to pit first under the Virtual Safety Car and then secondly, behind the Safety Car to maximise his chances.
“Today’s drive was good. Again, I’m a bit ***** about my start as it is something at the moment I have been struggling with but yeah there is more opportunity to learn and I’m happy with all the rest, with the performance.”
Lawson had a tough race and finished down the order
His team mate Liam Lawson did not fare so well, starting from further down the order. Luck was not on the Kiwi racer’s side in Italy, as he pitted well before the VSC and then had no realistic tyre options for the late Safety Car, instead limping to the end of the race on very old hard tyres in 14th place.
“Just pretty disappointed for everybody obviously on my side,” he said after the race. “We just got caught out by [the] VSC and Safety Cars today and unfortunately that’s what’s put us down the back so a difficult weekend.
“I try not to believe in luck honestly, but it has been pretty difficult recently so, as I said yesterday I will keep working hard and hope it turns around.”
Lawson is one of three drivers to have started every race this year and yet be without a point – the other two being Fernando Alonso and Gabriel Bortoleto. Hadjar though has amassed seven points and sits P14 in the drivers’ standings.