Battery Failure Robs Frustrated Hadjar of a Sepang Podium
Isack Hadjar had every reason to be smiling in Sepang. Starting eighth after a grid penalty, he gambled on intermediates just as most of the field ahead rolled out on slicks — a call that rocketed him up to fourth by lap six.
The trouble crept in quietly. “The car was horrible to drive,” he complained, describing an unexplained loss of grip through the race — nearly a second a lap slower than the pace Red Bull had shown earlier in the weekend.
The real blow landed in the closing laps, when his car’s battery simply gave up. “I don’t know how we ended up having no battery. On the straight, I couldn’t defend against the Ferraris,” he explained, powerless to hold position down the long Sepang straight.
The result: passed in quick succession by Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc in the final laps, Hadjar slid from fourth to fifth right when the podium looked all but secured. “It’s not a good day for me… it’s a disaster for me,” he summed up, not bothering to sugarcoat it.
Source: Formula1.com (https://www.formula1.com/en/latest/article/how-a-battery-issue-robbed-frustrated-hadjar-of-a-podium-in-sepang.lpydtOJ2CszTQCvhK4pDo)
