Hadjar receives grid penalty after Sainz incident at Canadian GP

Isack Hadjar from Racing Bulls has received a three-place grid penalty for the Canadian Grand Prix — a communication misunderstanding with his team resulted in him impeding Carlos Sainz during qualifying.

The incident occurred when Sainz was on a fast lap heading into Q2 — Hadjar blocked the Williams driver’s path around Turn 6, resulting in Sainz being eliminated in 17th position.

“I never impede anyone, not even in practice. I got told Carlos had aborted his lap, when in fact he was still pushing. It’s a complete miscommunication from what I got told, and it’s unfortunate this ruins his qualifying,” Hadjar explained.

The stewards’ document confirmed Hadjar’s explanation and imposed the standard three-place grid penalty — regardless of whether the fault originated from driver or team. As a result, Hadjar will start from 12th position while Sainz begins the race from 16th after Yuki Tsunoda received a 10-place penalty for a red flag infringement during FP3.