Isack Hadjar’s qualifying session at the Japanese Grand Prix was almost derailed by tight seatbelts around his groin, but he bounced back to secure starting spot on the fourth row.
The Racing Bulls rookie was complaining about discomfort in the cockpit during FP3, and he duly radioed early in Q1 to inform his engineer that the issue was still there as qualifying started. Despite the team being unable to rectify it during the first part of the session, Hadjar managed to advance to Q2, and once the problem was resolved he impressed to set the seventh fastest time overall.
“It’s a bit tight around the groin,” Hadjar said of the issue. “I was just playing with the belt, and in Q1, of course, you don’t have time to jump back out, so I had to deal with it and pull through to Q2. But yes, when I came back in the car, with the belt back on, it was all good.”
While he praised the team’s ability to get him comfortable during the session, Hadjar was still not totally satisfied with his result as he didn’t feel he took full advantage of the car at his disposal.
“This [seat belt fix] definitely helped me a lot as I was able to be fully focused on my driving,” he explained. “Overall, I’m really happy about my performance and lap time until the last chicane, as sadly, I lost one tenth there.
“The car is quite predictable. It’s fast as well, it’s efficient, so I just need to do a good lap and it puts me quite high in the rankings.”
With rain forecast on Sunday, Hadjar could face the second wet race in his first three grands prix, but he says he doesn’t expect conditions to be as difficult as in Melbourne, where he crashed out on the formation lap.
“I don’t think there’s tricky white lines on track,” he noted. “It should be easier. I just know sector one with this tarmac, it’s going to be quite tricky. It’s fast in dry conditions, but in the wet, for sure it’s going to be slippery. But, still, in the wet, I feel like I don’t have much experience. But we’ll see how it goes. I’m really excited.”
