Red Bull make it back-to-back podiums as Hadjar takes third at Monaco Grand Prix

Red Bull picked up a podium for a second race in a row as Isack Hadjar finished third at the Monaco Grand Prix.

Hadjar would be classified third after a penalty for Pierre Gasly’s Alpine, with the Frenchman taking the honours after a chaotic race that saw him battle technical issues, be under investigation for assorted penalties and navigate a late race restart.

It was a miserable day for his teammate Max Verstappen, however, as his engine failed straight away and he failed to finish.

The result sees Hadjar rise up to 8th in the Driver’s Championship, with the driver up to 29 points. His teammate Verstappen is in the position directly above, with the Dutchman on 43 points.

The Milton Keynes-based Red Bull team remain 4th in the Constructor’s Championship, with the team up to 72 points. They are 46 points behind 3rd place McLaren and 31 clear of 5th place Alpine.

On a sunny day in Monaco, Red Bull have arrived hoping for a good result in the Monaco Grand Prix. Verstappen put in a fine performance in Saturday’s qualifying to start second, behind only championship leader Andrea Kimi Antonelli and ahead of a Ferrari duo who many had expected to challenge for the win.

But Verstappen’s hopes of victory were done straight away. When the race began, the engine on Verstappen’s car immediately failed as he crawled off the line. While he was at least able to avoid being hit by anybody else, the car was only able to limp around once before coming back to the pits to retire.

This meant all of Red Bull’s hopes were on Hadjar, who had moved up to 4th due to his teammates’ misfortune. He too would have problems, however, reporting after 10 laps that his own engine was having drivability problems that were hurting his performance.

In the first half or so of the race, Hadjar was mainly spent holding up the Mercedes of George Russell, with the stewards handing no action to a potential issue when Hadjar cut the chicane on lap 28 after a lock-up.

Russell would ultimately pull off a strategic move to get ahead on lap 32, with the Mercedes making an undercut in the pit-stop to get ahead of Hadjar when he pit shortly after.

When others pitted, it meant Hadjar was running 5th, but behind Rusell and ahead of McLaren’s Oscar Piastri when the two either side of him were among several drivers to get penalties for speeding in the pit-lane.

The race then had a major swing on lap 60 when Lance Stroll crashed his Aston Martin at the final corner, triggering a safety car. Red Bull called Hadjar to make a second pit-stop, though with Russell making a slow pit-stop, it allowed Hadjar to get back ahead of the British driver and move up into 4th position.

The restart didn’t last long, however, as Charles Leclerc crashed at the same corner where Stroll had, causing an immediate return for the safety car and later a red flag after it was established the track surface at turn 19 was damaged and needed emergency repairs.

When the race resumed after a delay of over half an hour, Hadjar was lining up in third, only to be overtaken by Russell and Gasly when the second start took place.

Russell would drop out of contention when he came in to serve a drive-through penalty after he failed to serve a penalty properly when he pitted during the safety car, bumping Hadjar back up to 4th.

The Red Bull held off Piastri to finish 4th on the road, which became 3rd in practice when Gasly was given a ten second time penalty after getting two 5-second penalties for speeding in the pits.

The podium for Hadjar was however initially provisional. The driver had already faced one investigation for a safety car infringement during the race, which was cleared, but then had another investigation when Red Bull were accused of breaking the red flag rules.

The team were investigated for claims they tried to do more work to the car under the red flag rules than was allowed. Red Bull would later be cleared, allowing Hadjar to keep his place, although Alpine have requested a formal review of Gasly’s penalties in the hope these could be annulled.

Red Bull have a quick turnaround to next week when the team return to action for the Catalan Grand Prix in Barcelona.