Sainz claims Hadjar “destroyed” his F1 Canadian GP weekend after Q1 exit

Carlos Sainz was left fuming after he claimed Isack Hadjar impeded him during qualifying for the Canadian Grand Prix, which meant the Williams Formula 1 driver was eliminated in Q1.

Having looked strong over practice, Sainz felt his race weekend was left in tatters by Hadjar and hit out at the Racing Bulls rookie over team radio.

Sainz missed out on Q2 by less than a tenth of a second and was still upset when speaking to the media following his elimination.

“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,” he said.

“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.”

Asked what he could achieve in the race while starting so far back, Sainz offered a bullish response: “I don’t care about tomorrow right now, my brain is on how disappointed I am with today’s outcome because I was 20 milliseconds off Q2 and I got impeded. Basically, I had to do a wet line in a corner.

“Honestly, I don’t care right now, we’ve been quick all weekend, we were quick in race pace, but we’re still not where we want to be.” 

The incident resulted in a three-place grid penalty for Hadjar, who will now start the grand prix in 12th.