Carlos Sainz and Isack Hadjar reflected on their Q1 incident that resulted in a shock elimination for the Spaniard at the F1 Canadian GP, with the French driver getting a three-place grid drop.
Through practice the four-time race winner was fast, finishing 3rd, 7th and 9th in the three practice sessions. However, that meant nothing to Sainz in the end.
“Well, I don’t care if I was fast. If in Q1 you arrive and there’s a guy in the middle of the road that completely blows your qualifying away and that means that your weekend is destroyed.
“I’m in P17 when I should be fighting for Q3 and top eight today, so I’m extremely disappointed.
Carlos Sainz fumes at Isack Hadjar block in F1 Canadian GP qualifying
As he approached the quick right hander of turn 5, Sainz came up on Hadjar who was on a cool down lap after his last attempt.
Alongside the dirty air of that, the Frenchman got out of the way in an awkward situation and the Spaniard faced a compromised line in turns 6 and 7. He lost a chunk of time, and the 30-year-old missed out on Q2 by 0.020s in the end on a weekend where Williams have speed.
Such was the anger of Sainz in the print media pen following qualifying at the F1 Canadian GP, he was left to wonder if Hadjar had done it deliberately.
“I saw him already in turn three to four, I was surprised he didn’t get out of the way in three to four. I already lost a tenth or two with a dirty air, but I was like, ‘okay, he’s just playing the game of giving me dirty air.’
“That’s not impeding, but he’s giving me dirty air of a tenth just to try, maybe he was on the cut and trying to give me dirty air on purpose.
“And then I realised going into Turn 5, he’s not getting out of the way, I have to lift and I have to overtake him in the inside of six. Like if it’s a race, obviously with a bad angle into six and seven.
“I lost another two or three tenths there, so three or four tenths just in that lap, which is anyway a lap that is 20 milliseconds from Q2. That was the margin we had today.
“So, it’s honestly very frustrating, but it’s what it is.”
Isack Hadjar explains why he blocked Carlos Sainz in F1 Canadian GP qualifying
Speaking in the print media pen about what happened, the Frenchman explained his Racing Bulls engineer had told him over the radio that Sainz aborted his lap, which turned out to be totally incorrect.
“I never impede anyone, not even in practice, so now […] I got told Carlos had aborted his lap, and in fact he was still pushing.
“Complete miscommunication from what I got told, and it’s a shame, it ruins his qualifying, and probably a bit mine.”
Hadjar’s penalty puts him P12 on the grid, with Sainz a long way out of position as he will start 17th for the F1 Canadian GP.
