Sky Sports presenter Simon Lazenby and pundit Jacques Villeneuve struggled to keep their composure as Isack Hadjar talked about his painful issue after qualifying at Suzuka
Formula 1 rookie sensation Isack Hadjar said he «almost crashed» after suffering a painful problem in the cockpit of his car. During qualifying for the Japanese Grand Prix, the Frenchman reported over the radio that he was in severe discomfort.
It quickly became clear that the issue was with his seatbelts which may have been tightened a little too securely before the start of the session. As a result, he was suffering a lot of pain in a very sensitive area which was hampering his performance.
Still, he survived Q1 and was able to jump out of the car to have the seat belts repositioned ahead of the second part of qualifying. And he made the most of it by reaching Q3 and going seventh fastest in the Racing Bulls car, another very impressive result for the rookie who has enjoyed a strong start to life in Formula 1.
Perhaps because of that happy ending, Hadjar found little sympathy from the Sky Sports panel of pundits when he made a post-qualifying appearance on the channel to discuss how his day had gone.
«I’m just going to cross my legs here and ask you what was going on?» presenter Simon Lazenby began. Before Hadjar could answer pundit Jacques Villeneuve, who was already giggling, implored him not to go into «too much detail» on the live broadcast.
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Lazenby was also struggling to keep a straight face as Hadjar smiled and replied, «It was a nightmare, man. Honestly. I’m really proud of myself and the lap I did in Q1, with what I had, unbelievable.»
Lazenby and Villeneuve were still chuckling when Naomi Schiff, who was doing a better job of maintaining her composure, cut in to ask a question. But both her Sky Sports colleagues were laughing even harder when she pointed out: «This was not an issue I ever dealt with when I was racing.»
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Earlier on, during the session, Hadjar had made it clear just how painful the problem was as he spoke with race engineer Pierre Hamelin over the radio. He said: «I don’t know what’s wrong with me, f***ing hell. «I mean, I just can’t focus, I have so much lap time. It’s just not driveable.»
He later reported that the belts strapping him in were «twisted» which seemed to be the cause of his discomfort. Cameras mounted on board his car showed him trying to adjust the belts while driving whenever he could, but seemingly without being able to remedy the issue as he said he needed to get out of the car as he could not put up with it for much longer.
TV footage then showed Racing Bulls staff trying to resolve the issue in the garage and, even with his helmet on, Hadjar’s discomfort was obvious. On several occasions he winced and tightly closed his eyes because of the pain he was feeling as his mechanics tried to sort out his seat belt.
In a separate interview with F1 TV, he later said: «It compromised my first run in Q1. Then, it was drive-able, thankfully, on that final lap in Q1 to get through to Q2. But I was in pain a bit and then for the rest I could reset and just focus on driving fast and it worked.»
