Isack Hadjar not hugely elated – personally – despite points in F1 Brazil GP, but Liam Lawson feels amazing after managing a super second stint to hold of more than five cars, as unseen footage shows the two banging wheels.
Having started fifth, Visa Cash App RB’s Hadjar was not too happy with the outcome of F1 Brazil GP personally after finishing only eighth. But for the team, with Lawson ending up seventh, he was elated to score double points which is crucial for them in their quest to retain sixth in the standings.
Hadjar ran in fourth at one point but lost to George Russell. He lost out to Oliver Bearman crucially after a delayed stop and he was left in the traffic behind Lance Stroll, while defending from Pierre Gasly. In fact, the Alpine driver got through him at one point, but he retook track position.
Towards the end, he closed in on one-stopper Lawson and Nico Hulkenberg. He finally managed to clear the German for eighth and also had seventh, but dropped back after instruction. In fact, unseen on the world feed, Hadjar and Lawson banged wheels at Turn 1, with the Frenchman on the outside. Hadjar’s left-rear and Lawson’s right-front made contact in the approach to Turn 1.
The Frenchman was told ‘place on hold’ multiple times, which he eventually adhered to on the final lap. While he was happy with the team score, but personally he didn’t see it as a good outing due to struggles in the first stint. “The race was not very good,” said Hadjar to media. “The strategy on the first stint was not good.
“And then we lost a bit of time and we tried to make up for it but we didn’t have an amazing pace for that, so the P8 is not good. It was good [for the team]. We had a very good Sunday, points-wise. Helps us on the sixth place but it’s not a good day for me. It’s a good track.
“I had a lot of fun honestly in the race. If anything I gained a lot of experience, I had a lot of overtakes, defending. Honestly I had a lot of fun but it’s just not enough points for the effort,” summed up Hadjar, who was still frustrated on the radio after the race when his race engineer noted that the error in the first stint – presumably delayed pit stop – was down to ‘mistake on tools’.
Hadjar repeated the same sarcastically, as his race engineer agreed with no excuse notion. Both he and Lawson were fine outside the car in the parc ferme, as the Frenchman came to him immediately out of the car. The Kiwi didn’t take it personally as well, even though he was surprised by the contact.
He was pleased to undertake 52 laps on the medium where he braved to do a one-stop strategy after he was left with no other choice but to try. He also had a back and forth moment with Russell at the start. “Yeah, very tough, very long stints,” said Lawson to media. “It wasn’t honestly planned. It’s something that we made the decision in the race and I think it was very, very tough. But especially when you’re the second car, you always lose out with pit stops and then we lost a place on the first pit stop.
“I think we would have lost more on the second, so it made sense, honestly, to do it this way around. I had to look after the tyres quite a lot in that second stint, at the start as well, so we went forward and fortunately it worked out. I think, we definitely… I felt like we had the pace today, but the problem is it’s more that, for me personally being the second car in queue, I was always going to lose out.
“And when we were planning on doing a two-stop, that was going to be two stops that I would have obviously lost because we were so close at that point as well. The first one I lost a place to Gasly, I think, and then again, they boxed in front of me and, and I would have lost more positions in the second one, as I said.
“So we knew we had the speed. We had to figure out a way to utilise it, and I think doing the one-stop, although it was very, very close and definitely wasn’t the fastest race, it gave us track position and we had enough speed to stay in front,” summed up Lawson.
The Kiwi noted stress in the final laps to hold of big gaggle of seven cars by the end. He added on his teammate’s attempt, but brushed it off as a heat of the thing. “It was very, very stressful, yeah, very stressful,” continued Lawson. “Just trying to keep in behind, trying to manage energy and look after tyres, and it’s just super sensitive here. So, yeah, it was a battle.
“On Hadjar, he was going for a move. It’s the type of corner that’s that obviously curves in, he’s obviously trying to try and clear me before the braking, I think he just misjudged it. But obviously we both came out of it, so it was okay. It’s the last lap of a race. Honestly, I think there’s no way that the team can expect or anybody can expect [different].
“As much as it’s the ideal thing to do, there’s no way that we’re not going to race for a position like that. So I respect that we’re lucky that we came out of it, but it’s been a great weekend for the team,” summed up Lawson, as Visa Cash App RB collectively added 10 points to their tally.
Here’s race start: https://www.formula1.com/en/video/2025-sao-paulo-grand-prix-polesitter-norris-leads-away-from-antonelli-on-the-race-start.1848333750055262302
Here’s train of cars behind Liam Lawson: https://www.formula1.com/en/video/2025-sao-paulo-grand-prix-p7-lawson-leads-eight-car-train-over-the-line.1848340684106498401
Here’s how F1 Brazil GP panned out