Isack Hadjar Sao Paulo Grand Prix podium, Digi Mart USA News (Interlagos, Sao Paulo): Isack Hadjar has described how he nearly wiped out his Red Bull team during a late pit stop at the Sao Paulo Grand Prix.
With the field on dry-weather tyres, rain began to fall during the closing stages of the race at Interlagos, prompting a rush for intermediate tyres to survive the final laps.
Hadjar was battling for a podium position and secured a third-place finish, the third of the season for the team, with Max Verstappen in second.
However, during the change from slicks to intermediates, the Frenchman revealed that in the difficult pit lane he nearly collided with his pit crew. “I could see he was challenging me a lot and I was on ice, and he was on ice as well,” Hadjar said of his battle with Mercedes’ Kimi Antonelli as the stop approached.
“I nearly shunted into my pit crew when boxing, but they did a fantastic job. They kept their calm and the pit stop was fast, so a big thanks to the boys.”
Reflecting on the rest of his race, Hadjar described the difficulty of managing the intermediate-to-dry tyre crossover. “It was so, so difficult, so challenging, especially switching from the inter to the soft tyre,” he added.
“It was extremely difficult, especially in the pit lane. You saw how tricky it was to drive, and then more rain at the end, so I am happy to be standing third today.
“But I need to make fewer mistakes because I could have avoided a little awkward situation with Max, so I just want to apologise because I think on that stint I could have kept it a bit more on the track.”
