Hadjar finds a reason to smile after a weekend to forget

Isack Hadjar left Singapore with a badly bruised Saturday behind him and a much-needed reminder of what his Red Bull RB22 can deliver when it behaves itself.

After a weekend that threatened to unravel before the main event had even begun, the Frenchman salvaged a point with a spirited recovery from the pit lane, ending his Marina Bay ordeal on a far more encouraging note.

The 21-year-old had endured a miserable sequence of technical setbacks, retiring from the Sprint before further problems prevented him from setting a representative lap in Grand Prix qualifying.

For a driver whose priority is simply to get behind the wheel and push, the repeated interruptions were infuriating. Sunday, however, finally gave him the uninterrupted running he had been craving.

While team-mate Max Verstappen converted his own opportunity into victory, Hadjar fought his way through the field, passing Alpine’s Pierre Gasly in the closing stages to claim tenth place.

The result was hardly spectacular on paper, but the pace he demonstrated in the final phase offered genuine encouragement – provided Red Bull can get its reliability problems under control.

From Saturday’s fury to Sunday’s fightback

Hadjar made no secret of his anger after Saturday’s double blow, with mechanical trouble disrupting both the Sprint and qualifying.

“When you have an issue in quali, in the sprint, and you have another issue in the other qualifying... I don't know, I'm not an engineer, but it's bad momentum mechanically speaking,” he said on Saturday evening at Marina Bay.

“It's pissing me off because I just want to drive. I just want to get to it and go new tyre after new tyre, and now I don't get to do that. I'm just really, really pissed off.”

Sunday at least offered an opportunity to put that frustration to productive use.

Following power unit changes, Hadjar started from the pit lane and initially found himself fighting at the wrong end of the field, with further software trouble complicating his opening stint.

“At some point I was nearly dead last,” Hadjar said on Sunday evening. “Fernando [Alonso] overtook me, I had software issues, just a painful start but then we got back to it.”

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The early difficulties made his eventual points finish all the more satisfying. Hadjar acknowledged that his medium-tyre stint was largely about limiting the damage before he could switch to the softer compound, which proved far more effective for his Red Bull.

“On the medium [tyre] it was just damage limitation – I feel like I knew it was the weaker compound this weekend and the soft was working really well.”

Once the soft tyres were fitted, the Frenchman could finally attack rather than spend his time managing the car and nursing his way through the race.

“So once I was on it, I didn't have many laps to do on it, I had to just be flat-out and I was very fast. I enjoyed it honestly. I was flat-out, not much management and good overtakes.”

Verstappen’s victory offers further encouragement

Hadjar’s recovery was also a useful indicator of Red Bull’s underlying speed. Despite starting from the pit lane, he finished only six seconds behind George Russell’s Mercedes, which had also begun the race at the back.

Meanwhile, Verstappen delivered a victory that reinforced the potential of the RB22 when its performance can be properly exploited.

For Hadjar, that combination of his own pace and his team-mate’s success provided a welcome counterweight to the weekend’s technical headaches.

“It's good to have had everything new today during the race. At the same time, it's not like we know how to avoid these issues yet,” he explained.

“We don't have a guarantee this won't happen again, so in the next two weeks, big work to investigate that and make sure it doesn't happen again.”

The Frenchman needs clean weekends to build momentum, develop his understanding of the car and translate his speed into results without repeatedly having to recover from technical setbacks.

Still, after a Saturday that left him seething, Hadjar had every reason to head into the next round with renewed confidence.

“Honestly, I'm happy with the overall pace. Max is winning, [I had] great pace today from last, so I'm confident for the next couple of races.”

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