Hadjar delighted with ‘perfect race’ as rookie scores his first F1 points in Japan

Rookie driver Isack Hadjar secured his first top-10 finish of the 2025 season at the Japanese Grand Prix as he bounced back from his Qualifying troubles to execute a “perfect race”.

The Frenchman endured some discomfort in Qualifying for the race due to an issue with his seatbelt, but he came through the other side to claim P7 on the grid and equal his best race start.

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Despite losing one position to Ferrari's Lewis Hamilton in the early stages, Hadjar was left energised by his strong performance at Suzuka Circuit as he netted four points for Racing Bulls and propelled himself to P13 in the standings.

The team have struggled to pull off their strategy calls at previous races, including in China where they went against the pack and opted for a two-stop, but they had no such issues this weekend with Hadjar.

“It was a perfect race honestly,” he said afterwards. “It’s the first time this year [I’ve been] really happy.

“Even yesterday I felt I left some on the table but today, absolutely nothing so I’m really happy with the drive.”

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He also confirmed that the seatbelt problem fortunately did not make a reappearance during the 53-lap Grand Prix, allowing him to fully focus and ultimately cross the line in P8, over three seconds ahead of the Williams of Alex Albon.

Hadjar also finished in front of his new team mate Liam Lawson, who swapped seats with Yuki Tsunoda to return to Racing Bulls – the New Zealander previously drove in 11 races for them over the course of 2023 and 2024 and finished Sunday’s race in P17.

The result has left the 20-year-old feeling optimistic for the next stage of the season’s first triple header as the drivers now switch their attention to Bahrain, which differs greatly from the Suzuka track.

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He explained: “I think the first three races have shown that we have a good car in all conditions and corners and every type of track, so I think in Bahrain we’ll still be up there, even though testing was not the best but it gives us a lot of confidence.”