Hadjar apologises to Leclerc after penalty-earning defensive move at Canadian GP

Isack Hadjar earned his best Formula 1 result to date with a fifth-place finish at the Canadian Grand Prix in Montreal, but the afternoon was overshadowed by a dangerous defensive move on Charles Leclerc that drew a 10-second penalty from the stewards — a sanction that ultimately did not alter his final classification.

The incident occurred after the pitstop cycle, with Hadjar and Leclerc locked in a close battle on track. At the end of the back straight, Hadjar moved across the road in a manner that forced the Ferrari driver onto the grass, narrowly avoiding a collision. Leclerc subsequently passed him, and the stewards handed Hadjar the time penalty regardless.

“I was too harsh and if anything it wasn’t even on purpose,” Hadjar said after the race. “I just got confused where he was heading, so I didn’t mean to send him in the grass obviously. He’s a very clean driver, so I think I just apologised because it was a bit stupid.”

Leclerc, who described the moment as a genuine scare, was nonetheless quick to forgive his younger rival. “I think the penalty is deserved — it was a bit too close,” the Monegasque said. “Isack apologised, but these things happen. It’s hard to judge with these cars because there’s such a difference in speed that, in the mirrors, you don’t realise how little you can actually see. It’s happened to me in the past too.”

Fourth place represented a salvage job for Leclerc on a weekend he described as deeply difficult. “It’s a miracle to finish fourth on a weekend as bad as this one,” he admitted. “I never had a feel for the car at any point. I had a really, really hard time getting the tyres up to temperature. Lewis was exceptional all weekend long, but I was struggling.”

Hadjar’s afternoon was further complicated by a separate stop-and-go penalty for failing to slow sufficiently under yellow flags — yet even that did not drop him out of the top five. His bigger frustration was a puzzling drop in pace compared to Saturday.

“I don’t really understand where the pace went, because I really felt like I was struggling a lot out there,” he said. “Yesterday I felt great in the car and now it’s very hard to drive. In a way, I felt like I was back in FP1 — not pleasant to drive. I felt comfortable in the first few laps and then they opened the gap and I couldn’t match the pace, whereas yesterday I was easily there.”

Despite the two penalties and the unexplained pace deficit, Hadjar’s fifth place stands as a personal milestone in his debut Red Bull season, even if the manner of achieving it left him with questions to answer both on and off the track.