Isack Hadjar stuns in F1 Dutch GP qualifying with “best lap of the year”

Racing Bulls rookie Isack Hadjar qualified an impressive fourth for the Dutch Grand Prix with what he described as “probably the best lap" he has set in a Formula 1 car.

Having safely made it through Q3 along with teammate Liam Lawson, Hadjar left others stunned with a time of 1m09.208s, outpacing the Mercedes of George Russell and Ferrari duo Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc to grab a spot on the second row of the grid.

The 20-year-old had already shown incredible pace over one lap this year, but Zandvoort marked his best qualifying result in F1, as he improved on the fifth place he secured at the Monaco Grand Prix in May.

Speaking in the media pen, Hadjar was thrilled to have made the most of the conditions and a car that working to his liking.

“Very happy. Finally, I'm quite satisfied with what I did,” he told the media, including Crash.net. “So yeah, it was a good job for me.

Asked what the result was down to, he added: “To be honest, it was the car being exactly like I wanted. It was responding really well, especially on that final lap. 

“Probably we got a bit lucky with the wind gusts. I don't know, we need to look at the data. But yeah, I pulled an amazing lap and it stuck because the car was great.”

He added: “Surely, it's probably the best lap I've had this year because it's a very hard track, really demanding.

“And I put it all on the line, especially that final corner. I thought I did pretty well there to actually gain one more tenth. That was special.”

Hadjar will start the race alongside Red Bull’s four-time world champion Max Verstappen, who qualified third behind the McLarens of Oscar Piastri and Lando Norris.

“He's starting on the clean side of the grid,” said the French-Algerian. “He has great starts usually. So actually, I expect him to probably overtake a car ahead, if anything.”

Hadjar lost valuable track time in second practice when his car suffered from a mechanical issue after just a single lap.

Teams usually utilise FP2 to complete race simulations, but Hadjar remains confident that the VCARB 02 will be quick on long runs.

“I haven't experienced it [long-run pace], obviously,” he said. “We limited mileage yesterday, but looking at Liam, he was pretty fast yesterday. The car is healthy. It's fast on one lap, so it will be fast on many more laps.”

Hadjar is aware that he may not be able to hold on to fourth place in Sunday’s race, with a number of quick cars starting right behind him.

“I don't think it's really difficult to overtake here,” he said. “Looking at how long the straight is and the DRS zone starts very early. So if they have more pace, they will overtake. And that's it. We need to accept it and be smart.”