Hadjar confident of taking Championship lead ‘soon’ after P5 result in Barcelona Feature Race

Isack Hadjar had mixed emotions as he left the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya, as while pleased to finish the Feature Race in fifth, he felt a place on the podium was possible.

The Campos Racing driver’s weekend did not get off to the best of starts as he qualified 11th on Friday – his first time Qualifying outside of the top 10 this season.

He showed a great turn of pace in the Sprint Race, making a good start before taking the chequered flag in eighth, previewing what might be possible in the Feature.

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The Frenchman did the same on Sunday as a quick getaway from the line on the Softs put him up to fifth place by the end of Lap 1.

However, Hadjar admits he struggled in this stint, overtaken by AIX Racing’s Joshua Duerksen as the Hard tyres became the ones to be on, demoting him to sixth. However, after a pitting for the white-walled compound, he was able to make his way back up the order to finish in a well-earned P5.

“The start was really good, that's what we needed,” said Hadjar. “Unfortunately, we didn't manage the first stint really well, we then lost a few spots.

“But then the prime stint was really strong again, so we made up for it. A P5 finish, it's not bad but it could have been better.”

Talking more about his race pace, Hadjar continued: “Race pace was good but not strong enough. On the Option especially I think it's where we missed the podium then on the Prime, we were as fast as the cars ahead, so that's positive but we need to fix the Qualifying issue that we had.”

With this result Hadjar remains second in the Drivers’ Championship, but with the leader Paul Aron finishing third in the Sprint Race and fourth in the Feature what was a two-point gap heading to Barcelona is now at nine.

However, as Hadjar and the rest of the drivers make their way to Spielberg for Round 7, the Red Bull Junior Team talent is feeling confident of catching up to his Hitech Pulse-Eight rival soon.

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“It's not going really well,” said Hadjar assessing his season as a whole. “We had a few good rounds, I think the first two rounds didn't really favour us.

“For me, the Championship started in Melbourne and since then we have been competitive. I'm happy with that and I think we have a really good chance to take the lead soon.

“I feel really confident, my car is really good. Now it's just down to me and my engineer to do the job on Friday and it will make the job much easier on Sunday.”