Isack Hadjar takes aim at ‘super annoying’ Carlos Sainz after F1 career first
Isack Hadjar blamed Carlos Sainz for his Q1 exit at Monza
Racing Bulls driver Isack Hadjar has criticised Carlos Sainz for being “super annoying on the outlap” ahead of his Q1 exit at the Italian Grand Prix.
It comes less than a week after Sainz was embroiled in a war of words with Hadjar’s Racing Bulls teammate Liam Lawson.
Isack Hadjar points finger at Carlos Sainz after Italian GP Q1 exit
After claiming his first F1 podium finish with third at last weekend’s Dutch Grand Prix, Hadjar suffered the first Q1 exit of his career at Monza on Saturday.
The French-Algerian rookie cut a frustrated figure after the session, with Hadjar heard expressing his annoyance over team radio having suffered a wide moment at Lesmo 2 on his final lap.
Speaking to media including PlanetF1.com, Hadjar – who confirmed that he is set to take an engine penalty for Sunday’s race – pointed the finger at Sainz for compromising his outlap.
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Hadjar told PlanetF1.com’s Thomas Maher and other publications at Monza: “He was just super annoying on the outlap. He was not going to push anyway.
“I don’t know why he was fighting so hard for track position and then just let me by on my lap, so I compromised the outlap for nothing.
“And later on, I made a mistake. But honestly, all of that doesn’t matter because I’m starting last tomorrow.”
Hadjar claimed that he was capable of reaching in the top 10 in qualifying, commenting that Monza was the first time all season that a Saturday had not gone to plan.
He added: “It could reach Q3. It’s the first time in Q1 so much happened. Everything goes wrong and I made a mistake also on my lap.”
Asked if he had suffered floor damage in qualifying in addition to his frustrations with Sainz, he said: “Yeah. I had a tough sector 3.”
Hadjar went on to confess that his mentality was “probably not great” heading into qualifying, having been aware prior to the session that he will need to serve a penalty on race day.
More on Isack Hadjar and Carlos Sainz from PlanetF1.com
Asked if his qualifying disappointment, coming so soon after the high of his maiden podium, was a reflection of the fine margins at play in F1, he said: “Yeah, of course.
“It’s always been really tight. It’s how we like it, it’s very close.
“And again, I hate going into qualifying knowing that anyway I’m starting last tomorrow, so as well the mindset was probably not great.
“I like having pressure going into qualifying and this was just wrong.”
Hadjar added that he is not confident about scoring points at Monza from his poor starting position despite the underlying pace of the VCARB02.
He said: “Pace is good. If I’m starting in the top 10, we have a shot at points.
“But we can’t overtake 10 cars on pure pace and with a good strategy. It doesn’t happen.”
Hadjar’s teammate Lawson renewed his criticism of Sainz as F1 arrived at Monza on Thursday, accusing the Williams driver of “mouthing off to everybody” about their collision at Turn 1 at Zandvoort.
Sainz was given a 10-second penalty and two penalty points for the incident, with Williams submitting a right of review.
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