Hadjar accepts penalties after Leclerc scare

Isack Hadjar said both of his Canadian Grand Prix penalties were fair after a dangerous defensive move on Charles Leclerc and a separate yellow-flag infringement, but still came away from Montreal with fifth place, his best finish so far with Red Bull.

Hadjar's race turned on two incidents. He first received a 10-second penalty for defending too aggressively against Leclerc on the back straight, then later picked up a 10-second stop-go penalty for failing to slow sufficiently under double-waved yellow flags. Neither sanction changed his final position.

The flashpoint came in Hadjar's fight with Leclerc for fourth. Hadjar made multiple defensive moves before taking the line into the final chicane, forcing the Ferrari driver onto the grass at high speed before Leclerc completed the pass shortly after.

Hadjar did not try to argue the decision. He said: "I don't mind the penalties, I think they're fair." On the Leclerc incident, he added that he was "too harsh" and that it "wasn't even on purpose." Hadjar said he "just got confused about where he was heading," adding: "I didn't mean to send him on the grass, obviously. He's a very clean driver, so I just apologised because it was a bit stupid."

Charles Leclerc, the Ferrari driver, accepted the apology and agreed with the stewards' call. Speaking to Canal+ after the race, he said: "I think the penalty is absolutely deserved," and described the move as "a little bit too tight." Leclerc added that incidents like that can be hard to judge in modern Formula 1 cars because "the speed differences are so huge, and in the mirrors you see frighteningly little."

For Hadjar, though, the penalties were not the main frustration. His bigger concern was the loss of race pace after feeling strong on Saturday. He said he did not "really understand where the pace went" and described the car as "very hard to drive" on Sunday.

He said the problem was not limited to one area. Asked whether it was mainly straight-line speed, Hadjar replied: "I wish that straight-line speed was the only issue, because it was the whole thing." He said he felt comfortable in the opening laps, but once the gap opened he could no longer follow the pace he had matched a day earlier.

That left Hadjar with a contradictory result: a career-best fifth place with Red Bull, but a race that raised more questions than it answered about why his speed disappeared so sharply over a single night in Montreal.