Dreams in smoke
Isack Hadjar he had been the great surprise protagonist of Saturday’s qualifying, gaining an unexpected third position on the grid behind the two Mercedes of Russell and Antonelli and keeping Red Bull’s honor high after Max Verstappen’s sensational accident in Q1. However, the Frenchman’s fairy tale did not last long. In fact, during the 12th lap, after it was already slipped to fifth position having been overtaken at the start by the two Ferraris, the #6 found himself with the power unit of his RB22 on fire.
A hard blow for the engine made by Milton Keynes, which seems competitive in terms of performance but evidently it still pays a deficit compared to Mercedes and Ferrari from a reliability point of view. The dream of a second career podium for Hadjar therefore literally goes up in smoke, at least for this first GP of 2026, even if it must be said that it seemed difficult to imagine him catching up with the four cars in front of him at the time of the stop.
