Isack Hadjar had a strong qualifying performance leading up to the Mexico City Grand Prix, but left the Autódromo Hermanos Rodríguez with mixed feelings. The young Parisian achieved an impressive ninth time – good for an eighth starting position due to Carlos Sainz’s penalty – but was disappointed by a mistake that he believes cost him a better result: “I had expected more.”
Hadjar – who has already shown his class on Saturdays this season – was surprisingly fast during qualifying. In Q1, he secured the fastest time, with a lead of 0.003 seconds over Lewis Hamilton. However, he was unable to improve his time in the next qualifying round. With a narrow lead over Yuki Tsunoda, he advanced to Q3, where he qualified eighth after Carlos Sainz’s grid penalty, just behind championship leader Oscar Piastri. Thus, Hadjar is the best of the rest behind the top teams.
“When you look at it that way, it was indeed a good session,” Hadjar admitted. “But I’m still a bit peeved. I drove a very good lap, but made a small mistake that put me much further off than I thought. The rest have clearly made good progress and we have not.” Hadjar surprised with his first timed lap in Q1, but could not maintain that momentum in the subsequent sessions. “Because I was at the top in Q1, I had expected more from the rest of the qualifying.”
‘Hoping for chaos at the start’
According to Hadjar, the Autódromo Hermanos Rodríguez exposed one of Racing Bulls’ weaknesses. “I can be honest about it, our car struggles with riding on the kerbs – it’s just bad,” he lamented. Despite the problems, he is satisfied with the direction the team has taken in recent days. “We really understood what was going on – we were slow, and now we are quite fast. The fact that we got the car back on track within two sessions bodes well.”
Hadjar is frustrated about his starting position on the ‘dirty side’ of the grid. He claims to have had this misfortune several times this season. “I can’t even remember how many times I had to start on the wrong side of the grid,” he complained. “I know my starts are good, but I always end up on the wrong side. Moreover, it’s a long run-up to the first corner… we’ll see. Hopefully, it will be chaos,” he concluded with a wink. “And then I’ll seize my opportunity.”
