Isack Hadjar, Red Bull, Circuit de Catalunya, 2026

Isack Hadjar was surprised by Red Bull’s sudden step forward in performance in qualifying for the Barcelona-Catalunya Grand Prix.

Having been over a second off the pace in final practice, Hadjar qualified sixth on the grid for the race. He was less than a tenth of a second away from beating Andrea Kimi Antonelli to third place.

Hadjar said he didn’t understand how his lap times had improved so much. “It was a tough Friday and Saturday morning, then in qualifying it looks like we picked up the pace a bit, especially as we moved to Q3.

“I don’t even know how we are three tenths off pole because we’ve been a second off the whole – I mean, I’ve been a second off the time. So that’s a bit surprising and being so close to P3 is a bit disappointing.”

Red Bull have tended to lap slower relative to their competition during practice in previous seasons. This was particularly noticeable last year, when Max Verstappen often looked out of contention in practice yet ended the year with more pole positions than any other driver.

He also said “qualifying went quite a bit better than expected” and felt he could have qualified higher than fifth after setting the fastest time through the first sector.

“The gap was a lot smaller,” said Verstappen. “So looking back, P5 looks decent, but actually we had a really good opportunity for P3 as well. But somehow in my final sector, it just started sliding too much and then you’re just not following the normal line that you want to take.”

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Verstappen also felt the interruption to Q3 was particularly disadvantageous for him. Charles Leclerc’s crash brought out the red flags after Verstappen and Oscar Piastri set the first two lap times.

“It was only Oscar and me that did the lap before the red, and then we had like 10 minutes in the box,” said Verstappen. “You probably lose a little bit of rhythm as well, which is not ideal in Q3.

“You want to do a lap, come in, refill, put on new tyres – you know where you lost a little time or not – and go out again. When you’re waiting around a bit it’s probably not ideal.

“But at the end for us it was much better. I went into qualifying thinking we would be miles off and just be P7, P8, but this was promising.”

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2026 Barcelona-Catalunya Grand Prix

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Keith Collantine

Lifelong motor sport fan Keith set up RaceFans in 2005 – when it was originally called F1 Fanatic. Having previously worked as a motoring journalist, Keith began running the site full-time in 2010, achieving a long-held ambition to dedicate his full attention to his passion for motor racing. View all posts by Keith Collantine