Isack Hadjar described his qualifying performance at the Dutch Grand Prix as his best lap of the year after a career-high fourth place on the grid.
The Racing Bulls rookie scored 22 points for his name, but has only scored lonely points in the last five races, a courtesy of eighth place in the Spa sprint. On Saturday at Zandvort, he placed himself in Prime position to add to the tally on the impressive final lap with McLarens and Max Verstappen’s fourth, and says that handling the car allowed him to take risks in his final attempt.
“To be honest, it was the kind of car I wanted,” Hajar said. “It responded really well, especially on that final lap. Perhaps we were a little lucky with the gust of wind. I don’t know, we need to look at the data.
“This is probably the best lap of the year because it’s a really tough track this year and it’s a really tough track, and we put it all in that final corner, especially.
The wind was on Hajah’s sails on Saturday. Clive Rose/Getty Images
Enlarging the impact of wind, Hajar added: “To be honest, when you’re in a car and get hit by one, it’s a scary feeling. You could lose up to two tenths of a corner. It’s so annoying, so you have to be a little lucky.”
Zandvoort is considered a tight truck with few opportunities to pass, but Hadjar believes that the DRS setup will make him vulnerable to faster cars, but he doesn’t want to be caught up in unnecessary incidents.
“To be fair, I don’t think it’s really hard to overtake here. Looking at how long the straights are and how quickly the DRS zone starts, if they have more pace, they’re going to overtake, and that’s it – we need to accept it and be smart.
“I limited my mileage yesterday, but looking at Liam (Lawson), he was pretty fast yesterday. The car is healthy. It’s fast on one lap, so I think it’s going to be faster on more laps.”
