Isack Hadjar qualified fifth for the Monaco Grand Prix on Saturday, turning a bruising Friday into a strong result after a heavy crash in FP1 left him with far less running than he wanted. The Racing Bulls driver will start three places behind Red Bull team-mate Max Verstappen.
That recovery matters in Monaco because track time is precious and mistakes are expensive, especially after a crash that cost Hadjar more than half a session and shook his confidence. He said he had not done enough laps with the same car, called the day “just a horrific day,” and said his repaired car in FP2 still left him rebuilding from scratch.
Hadjar’s own view of qualifying was mixed. He said he ran as high as third in Q2, but dropped a couple of places in the decisive Q3 runs and felt he had left time on the table. “Definitely mixed feelings,” he said. “I think it was a very good comeback, but at the same time qualifying was too messy, and we did too many mistakes.”
He was blunt about where things went wrong. At the start of Q1, Hadjar complained about the way his out lap had unfolded, pointing to traffic and tyres and saying, “so yeah, we started off on the wrong foot.” He added that he was “a second off Max” before finding more pace in Q2, but said the day never fully settled into rhythm. “I haven’t done enough laps with the same car, and this is costly at the end,” he said.
There was still enough in the performance to keep him in the fight. Hadjar said he made the most of FP3 on Saturday morning and described his Monaco progress as “damage limitation.” The result leaves him fifth on the grid, with the cleaner weekend he wanted still missing, but a place near the front of one of Formula 1’s hardest circuits secured anyway.
