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Isack Hadjar admitted he was surprised by Red Bull’s sudden jump in pace after qualifying sixth for the Barcelona-Catalunya Grand Prix, having looked far less competitive earlier in the weekend.
Hadjar had been more than a second off the pace in final practice, but the picture changed dramatically once qualifying reached its decisive stages. By the end of Q3, he was sixth on the grid and less than a tenth away from beating Andrea Kimi Antonelli to third place.
The scale of the turnaround left Hadjar searching for an explanation. “It was a tough Friday and Saturday morning, then in qualifying it looks like we picked up the pace a bit, especially as we moved to Q3,” he said.
What made the result more striking was not simply the position, but the margin to the very front. “I don’t even know how we are three tenths off pole because we’ve been a second off the whole – I mean, I’ve been a second off the time. So that’s a bit surprising and being so close to P3 is a bit disappointing.”
The improvement followed a difficult build-up for Red Bull in Barcelona, where the team had been left looking for answers after practice. For more on that earlier struggle, read our report on Red Bull’s difficult Barcelona Friday.
Max Verstappen also felt qualifying had gone better than expected, despite ending up fifth. He believed a place as high as third had been possible after setting the fastest first sector, only for the final part of the lap to unravel.
“The gap was a lot smaller,” Verstappen said. “So looking back, P5 looks decent, but actually we had a really good opportunity for P3 as well. But somehow in my final sector, it just started sliding too much and then you’re just not following the normal line that you want to take.”
Verstappen also pointed to the interruption in Q3 as a disadvantage. Charles Leclerc’s crash brought out the red flags after Verstappen and Oscar Piastri had set the first two lap times, forcing a long wait in the garage.
“It was only Oscar and me that did the lap before the red, and then we had like 10 minutes in the box,” Verstappen explained. “You probably lose a little bit of rhythm as well, which is not ideal in Q3.”
He said the normal sequence of completing a lap, refuelling, taking new tyres and immediately applying the lessons from the first run was disrupted. Even so, Verstappen left qualifying encouraged.
“I went into qualifying thinking we would be miles off and just be P7, P8, but this was promising.”
He’s a software engineer with a deep passion for Formula 1 and motorsport. He co-founded Formula Live Pulse to make live telemetry and race insights accessible, visual, and easy to follow.
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