‘Grumpy’ Alonso awarded Hadjar ‘trophy for hero’ – but it wasn’t a compliment

Isack Hadjar has called out “grumpy” Fernando Alonso after the Aston Martin driver gave him “trophy for hero of the race” as they raced for position mid-race in the Singapore Grand Prix.

Rookie of the F1 2025 season in all but championship points, Hadjar qualified P18 at the Marina Bay circuit, two places ahead of Alonso, who made short work of the Haas of Oliver Bearman.

Isack Hajdar received Alonso’s ‘trophy for hero of the race’

Alonso went on to overtake Hadjar on lap 3 of the grand prix, diving down the inside at the hairpin, but was again behind the Racing Bulls driver after a slow pit stop for the Aston Martin.

Hadjar, though, was nursing an engine issue.

Despite struggling to stay ahead of Alonso on pure pace, he tried to do so with race-craft which frustrated the Spaniard.

The two went wheel-to-wheel on lap 37 for position with a frustrated Alonso eventually getting ahead and proclaiming: “Trophy for hero of the race!”

Alonso, who was later also irked by Lewis Hamilton nursing an ailing car, reckons Hadjar should’ve yielded given his engine issues.

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“I think he had a little bit of an engine problem, from what I understood, on the straights – he was slow,” the 44-year-old said.

“Sometimes, some battles you need to know when it’s better to fight, when it’s not, because probably the final result of the race could be worse for both for sure – but for him in particular.

“So yeah, I think some unnecessary risk, but I understand that this is Singapore and you need to fight hard, and he did his best, but we lost time for sure.”

Hadjar, though, felt it was his right – car troubles or not – to fight to the end in what he thought was a good fight with the double World Champion.

“I didn’t push him off the track,” he said. “I kept it clean.

“If he didn’t enjoy that fight then he’s really grumpy, and there’s nothing I can do for him.”

But told of Hadjar’s “grumpy” comment, Alonso doubled down on his assessment that the Racing Bulls driver was in the wrong.

“Well,” he said, “some movements at 300km/h are a little bit borderline in Singapore, but everyone races as they want and there was no contact, nothing like that, so everything is fine.

“They have a very fast car, they don’t have many points, so it’s more their problem.”

With Alonso seventh at the flag after Hamilton’s penalty and Hadjar missing out on a point in 11th place, Racing Bulls and Aston Martin go into round 19 of the championship, the United States Grand Prix, separated by just four points.

Hadjar says his second half of the Singapore race was compromised by his engine issue while the heat in Singapore didn’t help.

“The whole second half of the race, or more,” he said. “I had other issues than just the heat, just a lot of vibrations in the car, and had a bit of a headache. But other than that, not really.”

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