Isack Hadjar missed three races over the summer break with a wrist injury, but his return to the grid in Sepang looks anything but rusty — he qualified third, despite his own modest take on the lap. “It’s the first time in my life that I actually feel like we do a terrible job and we’re third, so that’s the perks of having a very good car, and I won’t lie, it’s very satisfying,” the Frenchman admitted, pointing to how closely he’s matched teammate Max Verstappen’s pace all season.

The satisfaction doesn’t last long, though. With a seventh internal combustion engine fitted — one more than the permitted four — Red Bull is once again eating a five-place grid penalty, just as it did heading into the Sepang weekend. The result: third on the timesheet becomes eighth on the actual grid.

Fresh off a podium in Baku the weekend before, Hadjar isn’t pretending Sunday will be straightforward from there: “It’s going to be so difficult to overtake on just raw pace… the only way is just, you know, be smart with the strategy, as clean as we can, and just go for it.”

Source: Formula1.com (https://www.formula1.com/en/latest/article/hadjar-enjoying-comeback-from-injury-despite-grand-prix-penalty-in-malaysia.3JYXgUv1pfyCZUIXdgMMPy)