Hadjar sets sights on victory after Red Bull set-up turnaround in Austin
Isack Hadjar could not complete a single lap on the soft tyres at the Circuit of the Americas on Saturday morning. By the evening, he had qualified third for the United States Grand Prix.
The Red Bull driver set a 1:34.250 in Q3, 0.036 seconds slower than team-mate Max Verstappen and 0.215 off Kimi Antonelli's pole time. Antonelli's 1:34.035 came on his first run in the final session, with Verstappen 0.179 behind him on the front row. Both Red Bulls had reached Q3 on a single set of softs.
Hadjar will start from the second row alongside Charles Leclerc, who was just 0.017 seconds slower. Ferrari had looked strong in final practice but could not convert that into a front-row start, and Lewis Hamilton and George Russell completed the top six. The result also matches Hadjar's P3 in Melbourne, his first qualifying session as a Red Bull driver.
The turnaround was all the more striking given where his weekend began. "Even this morning, I didn't do a lap on the soft because I could not complete it," Hadjar said. "That's how hard the car was to drive."
He credited the recovery to the work done on the car rather than any change in conditions. "P3 is outstanding. I'm very happy about how we worked on the car," he said. "It's not like we waited for the track conditions to improve or said, 'let's put new tyres on and see'. We really were working hard on it. We really did a good job on setting up the car nicely and I'm happy with the comeback."
Red Bull's recovery came as Ferrari faded, and Hadjar made clear where his ambitions now sit. "Yeah, that's the target, from third," he said of fighting for the win. "We believe the car is good. Max is right there as well, so as a team it's going to be helpful for sure. So now we will try and have a go at it."
Antonelli, the championship leader, has a mathematical chance of sealing his maiden title in Austin, which gives Red Bull's two cars on the second and third spots on the grid a bigger job than a podium finish. Hadjar began the weekend struggling to finish a lap. He starts Sunday believing the car is good enough to chase the win.
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