‘We’re not as fast as we look’ – Hadjar plays down pace after P2 on Friday in Singapore

Isack Hadjar has moved to play down his pace after setting the second-fastest time in Friday practice at the Singapore Grand Prix, with the Racing Bulls driver insisting that “we’re not as fast as we look”.

The Red Bull sister team arrived into the event off the back of a strong run of form, Hadjar having clinched his maiden F1 podium in the Netherlands before the squad scored a double points finish last time out in Azerbaijan.

After claiming P7 on the timesheets in the opening practice session at the Marina Bay Street Circuit, Hadjar went even better in the second hour by slotting into P2, his time just 0.132s off that set by McLaren’s Oscar Piastri.

When asked afterwards if he was happy with his result, the Frenchman responded: “Yeah, I mean the car works well. I’m comfortable on this track even though it’s my first time – I really like it. But we’re not as fast as we look, to be honest.

“We’re still in the game but I still think Aston Martin are quicker. We did our lap time quite late in the session, we are struggling to switch on the tyres on the first push lap, so there’s still some work to do.”

Free Practice 2 proved to be heavily disrupted, with two red flags – owing to incidents for George Russell and Hadjar’s team mate Liam Lawson respectively – as well as contact in the pit lane between Charles Leclerc and Lando Norris.

With this having limited running time, Hadjar was quizzed on how he had found the session.

“Really annoying,” the 21-year-old answered. “Traffic was not easy. Every time I was on a lap I had a bit of traffic, then I’m on a good lap and then there’s a red flag, so it’s a bit frustrating but we handled it really well.”