A pit-box scare nearly disrupted Isack Hadjar’s superb Brazil drive. His mechanics stayed composed, and Laurent Mekies called it his best race yet for Red Bull on pure pace.
Isack Hadjar finished Brazil on the podium, but one of his closest calls came with his own mechanics waiting in front of him.
“I nearly shunted into my pit crew when boxing,” he admitted after the race.
The rain had returned, grip was disappearing, and Kimi Antonelli was applying pressure behind him. Reaching the pit box safely was another challenge in a race that had already demanded switches between intermediate and slick tires.
Red Bull’s crew held their nerve.
“They kept their calm and the pit stop was fast,” Hadjar said.
Third place behind Lando Norris and Max Verstappen was his third podium of the season, following Monaco and Azerbaijan. But the performance impressed team principal Laurent Mekies as much as the result.
“I think it’s the best race he has done with us,” Mekies told reporters, specifying his assessment was about pure pace.
Hadjar had started fifth and worked through an uneven opening stint. At one stage, he struggled to accelerate out of corners on intermediates. Once on soft slicks, he found stronger pace and remained competitive as the weather changed again.
His fight with Antonelli became particularly difficult when the rain returned: running ahead meant Hadjar was discovering the grip available before the Mercedes driver reached the same corners.
He emerged with a podium and helped Red Bull secure a double top-three finish. Mekies saw further evidence of a driver continuing to raise his level.
Hadjar, meanwhile, made sure the people waiting at his pit box received their share of the credit.
