ZANDVOORT, Netherlands — Isack Hadjar described his qualifying lap at the Dutch Grand Prix as the best of his career after claiming fourth on the grid for Sunday’s race at Zandvoort.
The Racing Bulls driver has enjoyed a standout rookie season to date and secured his highest qualifying result so far with an impressive lap of the 2.65-mile circuit.
Hadjar was just 0.283 seconds off the pace of Max Verstappen‘s Red Bull in third place and was 0.292 seconds clear of Racing Bulls teammate Liam Lawson, who secured eighth on the grid.
“I’m very happy, you know,” he said. “Finally I’m quite satisfied with what I did. So yeah, it was a good job for me.
“To be honest, it was the car being exactly like I wanted. It was responding really well, especially on that final lap.
“Probably we got a bit lucky with the wind gusts, you know? We need to look at the data. But yeah, I pulled an amazing lap and it sticked because the car was great.”
Hadjar said the performance was all the more rewarding as it came at a circuit that is notoriously difficult over a single lap.
“Surely it’s the best lap I’ve had this year because it’s a very hard track, really demanding,” Hadjar added. “And I put it all on the line, especially that final corner.
“I thought I did pretty well there to actually gain one more tenth. And yeah, that was special.”
Asked if he had a strategy for starting alongside Verstappen on Sunday’s grid, Hadjar said: “I mean, he’s starting on the clean side of the grid. He has great starts usually.
“So actually I expect him to probably overtake a car ahead, if anything.”
