With this third place,
Hadjar becomes the first driver to reach Q3 in his
first race at
Red Bull since
Max Verstappen during the
2016 Spanish Grand Prix.
Read more Max Verstappen perplexed after his qualifying crash in Melbourne: «I’ve never experienced this»
It is a very
encouraging signal for the young Frenchman’s first season within
the Austrian team, confirming that he is following well in the
footsteps of his elder, unlike his predecessors in the
second Red Bull, especially on the day when the team leader was
caught out.
Under control
After the session, Hadjar
admitted that qualifying had been much better managed than the
rest of the weekend: « It was a very smooth qualifying. The
weekend up until qualifying had been very difficult, we weren’t
in a position to fight for a top 3, the
Scuderia
Ferrari and the
McLaren were faster, but we built
our qualifying well. »
While he believes a podium is within
reach, Isack remains clear-headed about the pace shown by the
Mercedes: « All I can do is take a
good start, but they are too fast at the moment. I want to
keep my position, and securing a second podium would be good.
»
Read more Lackluster start for Alpine, trailing the pack
Constant progression
A little later in the
media zone, he looked back on a particularly clean session,
marked by constant progression with each run on track:
« A very relaxed session. I didn’t experience any
setbacks. It’s also the first time, I believe, in my
short F1 career, that I improved my lap time with every
run, even with worn tires. I simply put myself in the
right frame of mind to achieve it. »
With a controlled qualifying and a
strategic place on the grid, Hadjar is ideally placed to aim for a
new significant result from the first race of the season in order
to establish himself for good in the Red Bull top team.
Read more Charles Leclerc warns: Mercedes already has a head start in F1