Isack hadjar qualified fifth for the Monaco Grand Prix after a heavy crash in FP1 took away track time and dented his confidence. He called the day a “horrific day,” then recovered to finish three places behind Red Bull team-mate Max Verstappen.
Hadjar Reaches Fifth in Monaco
Hadjar said the result carried “mixed feelings” because the pace was there, but the lap was not clean enough to unlock more. He was as high as third in Q2 before dropping a couple of places in Q3, and he said he left time out there.
“I think it was a very good comeback, but at the same time qualifying was too messy, and we did too many mistakes,” Hadjar said after the session. He added: “Not the best way to build for Q3, and I left some time out there.”
The gap told the story. Hadjar said he was five tenths off the guys ahead, a margin he described as very demanding to erase in Monaco qualifying.
FP1 Crash Changed Friday
The setback came early on Friday, when a heavy FP1 accident cost him more than half a session. Hadjar said FP2 began only after his car was repaired, and he said the accident forced him to rebuild his confidence before the rest of the weekend could settle.
“I mean, I think I missed more than half a session. FP2, my car was repaired, and my confidence needed rebuilding, and just a horrific day,” he said. That left him with limited time to settle the car and fewer laps in the same package before qualifying.
“I haven’t done enough laps with the same car, and this is costly at the end,” Hadjar said, putting the emphasis on the lost running rather than the final result alone.
FP3 Helped Reset His Weekend
By Saturday’s FP3 session, Hadjar said he had made the most of the time available. “But I made the most of FP3 this morning, and honestly, damage limitation, so I did well,” he said, describing the rebound as a recovery from the events of Friday rather than a clean build-up.
He also pointed to the awkward start to Q1, saying: “Traffic and tyres, so yeah, we started off on the wrong foot.” Even so, he was back in the fight by Q2 after what he called a good warm-up, and he remains hopeful he can make progress from P5.
The Monaco result leaves Hadjar starting inside the top five despite the crash and the repair work that followed it. For him, the weekend now turns on turning that recovery into a stronger race run after losing the better part of Friday.
