Racing Bulls Formula One driver Isack Hadjar has been hit with a three-place grid penalty for the 2025 Canadian Grand Prix.
After qualifying in ninth position, the French-Algerian driver will now start the race from 12th on the grid.
During the qualifying session at Circuit Gilles Villeneuve, Hadjar was informed Williams’ Carlos Sainz was behind him but had aborted his lap. However, as the Spanish driver stormed past him, he realised he had impeded Sainz’s flying lap. As expected, Hadjar has been penalised for the move despite it seemingly being a communication error from within the team.
While speaking to the media after the race, Hadjar was visibly down about the situation.
“I never impede anyone, not even in practice,” said Hadjar, “I got told Carlos had aborted his lap, and in fact he was still pushing. So, complete miscommunication from what I got told. It’s a shame, it ruins his qualifying and probably a bit mine.”
Sainz, who will start the race in 17th, fumed to the media, stating:
“Well, I don’t care if I was fast. If in Q1 you arrive and there’s a guy in the middle of the road that completely blows your qualifying away and that means that your weekend is destroyed.
“I’m in P17 when I should be fighting for Q3 and top eight today, so I’m extremely disappointed. I saw him already in turn three to four, I was surprised he didn’t get out of the way in three to four. I already lost a tenth or two with a dirty air, but I was like, ‘okay, he’s just playing the game of giving me dirty air.’
“That’s not impeding, but he’s giving me dirty air of a tenth just to try, maybe he was on the cut and trying to give me dirty air on purpose. And then I realised going into Turn 5, he’s not getting out of the way, I have to lift and I have to overtake him in the inside of six. Like if it’s a race, obviously with a bad angle into six and seven.
“I lost another two or three tenths there, so three or four tenths just in that lap, which is anyway a lap that is 20 milliseconds from Q2. That was the margin we had today. So, it’s honestly very frustrating, but it’s what it is.”
Why was Isack Hadjar penalised in Canada?
The FIA released the following statement to explain why Hadjar was handed the three-place grid penalty for the Canadian Grand Prix.
“Impeding Car 55 in turn 6. (Breach of Article 37.5 of the FIA Formula One Sporting Regulations.
“Drop of 3 grid positions for the next Race in which the driver participates.
“The Stewards heard from the driver of Car 6 (Isack Hadjar), the driver of Car 55 (Carlos Sainz), team representatives and reviewed positioning/marshalling system data, video, timing, team radio and in-car video evidence.
“Car 6 was on an in-lap and was caught by Car 55, on a push lap, at the entry to turn 6. Although Car 6 attempted to move off the racing line to leave space for Car 55, the move was too late. The driver of Car 6 agreed that Car 55 was impeded. He explained that he had earlier been told by his team that Car 55 was approaching on a push lap but the team then told him that Car 55 had abandoned the lap. He said that although he saw Car 55 in his mirrors, he relied upon what he had been told by his team and when he realised the information was wrong he did his best to move out of the way.
“The standard penalty for this infringement during Qualifying in the Penalty Guidelines is a 3 grid position penalty regardless of whether the incident was the fault of the driver or the team.”
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