Hadjar's Guest Column: Qualifying step is massive for title battle

12 July 2022

Isack Hadjar is on a roll and the Frenchman was in fine form for the latest Formula 3 Guest Column for this week too.

The Hitech Grand Prix driver reflected on a big weekend for his Championship hopes, delving into his Qualifying improvements and what he's expecting at the next round at the Hungaroring.

ONE GOOD POINT - QUALIFYING PACE IS THERE

There’s been a lot of good points this weekend with the Feature Race win and plenty of points, but I’d say that the pole position is the biggest step that we’ve made so far. We’ve always had a lot of potential in the car to be on the front row or second row but I’ve never managed to put it all together. But at the Red Bull Ring, I managed to do something great so I was quite proud to do such a great step forward. If we keep pushing and improving that way, that will definitely help on Sunday because this is where you want to get as many points as possible. You really want to nail that Qualifying session so I’ve really improved on that and very happy with that lap.

ONE BAD POINT - BATTLING MARTINS IN THE SPRINT

The Sprint Race, even though we started further back in 12th we managed to still get points in P10 but at some point in the race I was in front of Victor (Martins) who is my rival for the Championship. The target was to keep him behind at least, but I made a mistake in the last corner and he dived into Turn 1 and that made me lose a few more places. I lost four places in one corner. It was fair from him, he left me space but I just didn’t manage to get the exit right so I lost four places there. We could have had top eight but we ended up in 10th so I didn’t maximise the result there. That’s a few points missing.

WHAT I LEARNED - NEVER GIVE UP

Qualifying sessions can be much longer than you think. You always have around four to five laps in the Qualifying session but in the end I only had two because I had two of my times deleted on the first run. Basically I had no time in the first part of quali. On those last two laps, you just never have to give up. This is what I did and knew it wasn’t over. I needed to be in the top 12 at least to have a good weekend and those last two laps I was on it, I was focused. Qualifying sessions can be so long and anything can happen, you need to be prepared for those push laps and be ready to take any opportunity.

NEXT UP - BUDAPEST

I’ve done quite well in the past there. Hitech won last year’s Sprint Race with Ayumu (Iwasa) and they’ve always had decent pace there so I think we’ll have a good baseline to start with. It’s a track where you really want to nail the Qualifying. It’s so tough to overtake there. If you’re in the top five then you know you’re going to have a decent weekend if you stay on track. I’m expecting to be fighting for top three or top five for Qualifying and then see what we can do from there. I think it’s going to be critical for the weekend to have a good lap.