Finishing sixth in the Monaco Grand Prix ahead of Esteban Ocon, Isack Hadjar achieved the best result of his young career in the Principality, greatly aided by the bottleneck created behind him early in the race by his Racing Bulls teammate Liam Lawson.
Isack Hadjar (Racing Bulls, 6th in the Monaco GP, speaking to Canal +): “We stuck to Plan A, Liam (Lawson, who slowed their rivals behind) played the game well, which gave us our pit stops quite early in the race (on the 14th and 19th laps) and secured the sixth place. It was a good race, it was a bit long but I’m really happy for the team.
The stint on hard tyres was long but it’s Monaco, I knew I was going to keep my position even if it wasn’t easy in terms of management. I’m really proud of myself, I had a really solid weekend. I’m very happy with the progress, we had a lot of trouble at the beginning then little by little we made the necessary steps. Starting fifth, it was quite crazy, being in the train of the big heads, it was cool too. I’m very happy.”
Esteban Ocon (Haas, 7th, speaking to Canal +): “There were very different rhythms. At certain times, we had to push hard, manage at other times, see a bit of degradation and think and slow down in front of the box to secure the position. It was a nice battle with Isack throughout the race. Congratulations to him for this great race, on our side, we did the maximum that was possible today (Sunday), we bring back beautiful points for the team, it’s really a pleasure. It was a well-constructed weekend, we did what was necessary, we didn’t put a wheel out all weekend so I’m quite happy.”
Pierre Gasly (Alpine, retired, speaking to Canal +): “Yuki (Tsunoda) made a mistake at the turn before the tunnel, which allowed me to be quite close to him. He started braking to the left, unlike the previous laps, so I moved to the right and I didn’t expect him to come back to the right. It’s unfortunate, we’ll have to quickly focus on next week.”
