Verstappen recovers as Hadjar's Red Bull debut ends in failure
It was a mixed bag for Red Bull Racing at the F1 season opener in Melbourne
Max Verstappen overcame a qualifying crash to finish an impressive sixth in the F1 season opener in Australia, but it was a smokey end for team-mate Isack Hadjar.
The Dutchman was the headline for the wrong reasons on Saturday when he spun off in Q1, meaning he would start Sunday’s race 20th, while Frenchman Hadjar, making his Red Bull debut, showed the car’s pace with an impressive third place.
The 21-year-old though would pull over after just 11 laps when the new power unit expired in smoke, but Verstappen battled through the pack, capitalising on virtual safety car periods to ease into the top ten.
His progress was halted by world champion Lando Norris, who held off the former champ to come home in sixth.
“The first laps were pretty hectic and we just needed to stay out of trouble,” said Verstappen afterwards. “We got quite cleanly through the field, did some decent overtakes and learned a bit about what we could do. We settled into our own race but unfortunately had a little too much tyre degradation
“We tried everything at the end to overtake (Norris) again and gain a position but when we got close my tyres opened up.
“Overall the team still did a great job: it was a decent comeback from P20 and we will work as a team to close the gap further.”
For Hadjar, it was a disappointing end to his debut for the Tilbrook team, but is keen to bounce back quickly at this weekend’s Chinese Grand Prix.
He said: “Today was frustrating. I was confident that we could challenge for the podium so this result is a shame. I felt really strong off the line but unfortunately the issue we had came up straight away.
“The reliability we had throughout the weekend was good, but of course, the race is different and I could feel that there was a problem quite early on. The car was making a funny sound and I knew that we weren't going to make it to the end. It's frustrating, but these things can happen and we're so early on in our journey.
“We quickly go onto China with a short turnaround but I'm confident that we're going to learn from this.”