Hadjar aiming for Sprint Race rebound after difficult Friday in Lusail

It was not the Friday night Isack Hadjar had hoped for going into Round 13 Qualifying at the Lusail International Circuit, as the Campos Racing driver slipped away from his title rivals.

While Championship leader Gabriel Bortoleto and third-placed man Paul Aron fought for Pole, the Frenchman had to settle for P9 at the chequered flag after a difficult day in Qatar.

The Red Bull Junior Team driver is currently 4.5 points adrift of Bortoleto in the Standings, but after a tricky day, has some work to do with the team to overturn a pace deficit to his rival and those ahead of him in the order.

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“We were lacking pace the whole day really,” he reflected after the session. “I have to say we made some good improvements from this morning, reduced the gap to the leaders but we still don’t know fully why we’re a second off.

“There’s a bit on my side, there’s some in the car setup as well, but it’s just not good enough. I’m glad that I still made the top 10 so we still have a chance this weekend.”

Hadjar was disappointed to have not been further up but with a top 10 result, keeps himself in contention for both races and scoring results.

While he was able to pick out of the positives from a difficult session, he’s hoping that Saturday will bring some all-important momentum back onto his side as the title fight reaches its final stages.

“I don’t remember having done any huge mistakes recently. Obviously, we had the brake issue in Baku that meant we couldn’t continue in Qualifying, so that was our weekend over. Monza – we got unlucky with the pitstop. It’s a Championship in which things can turn really difficult in a second.

“I think that’s part of having that momentum with you, and then sometimes you have really low moments, the lowest of the lows.

“Not being here levels things out. It’s about who gets the setup right, who gets that baseline right and understands the car better. We have a bit of progress to make on that, but you can’t make it fairer than that.”

Looking ahead to the Sprint Race, Hadjar will be alongside PREMA Racing’s Oliver Bearman on the front row, with a clear view into Turn 1.

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The Campos driver says he’ll be aiming for victory to help limit the damage going into Sunday’s Feature Race, where his two closest rivals will be going from the front.

“I’m starting alongside Ollie. I know he’s been struggling a bit like me. I need to be fighting for the win, that’s the target starting from the front row, we have a good shot. Apart from that, we just have to have a good start and from there, we’ll see what we can do, but hopefully we have more pace than we had today.

“Gabriel qualified second today, luckily Paul was there to grab those two points but then, he’s catching on me as well. So there’s not much I can control.

“I wasn’t focusing on them in Qualifying, I was just trying to make it into the top 10 so I’ll thinking about myself and trying to score as many points as possible.”