Hadjar battery trouble costs Bahrain podium shot
NXTbets Pro | Published On: October 4, 2026
Hadjar’s Bahrain run
Isack Hadjar finished fifth in the Bahrain Grand Prix after a race that put him in podium contention before it slipped away late. He started eighth after an engine penalty, then made steady progress on intermediate tires as the opening phase unfolded. He passed Liam Lawson for fourth on lap six and climbed as high as fourth early in the race, putting himself in position to fight near the front even after the setback that forced him to begin outside the top group.
Hadjar kept building from there. He inherited third when George Russell retired on lap 50, and that move briefly put him in a podium spot with the race moving toward its closing stages. Hadjar was running third before the final safety car restart, a position that set up a tense finish and raised the chance of a breakthrough result. His run through the field showed pace and control in the early and middle portions of the Grand Prix, and it left him close enough to challenge for more when the race tightened up again.
Battery trouble strikes
The final restart changed everything. Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc passed Hadjar after the final safety car restart, and he dropped out of podium position before the flag. Hadjar said he briefly had no battery in the final laps, a problem that left him unable to defend on the straights when the race was on the line. He said the car was “horrible to drive,” and poor grip also played a part in the setback.
Hadjar did not soften his view of what happened. He described the race as a “joke,” a blunt assessment of how quickly a podium chance turned into damage control. He said the issue was on the chassis side rather than the power unit, which pointed the team toward a different kind of fix than a straight engine problem. The complaint about battery loss mattered because it came at the exact point where track position was most valuable. With the field compressed after the safety car, he needed clean acceleration and straight-line speed to hold off two front-runners. He had neither. Hamilton and Leclerc moved past, and Hadjar crossed the line nearly four seconds behind Hamilton after having spent much of the race inside the fight for a top result.
Singapore fix ahead
The Bahrain result left Hadjar with clear work to do before Singapore. He said the team needed to fix the issue and understand why its pace had been so poor. That focus mattered because his race in Bahrain showed two different pictures in one afternoon. The opening phase and the middle stint gave him room to attack, and his climb from eighth to the sharp end proved the car could move through traffic. The closing laps told a different story, with battery trouble, grip problems and weak straight-line defense leaving him exposed when the pressure rose.
His comments pointed to a broader problem than a single late-race loss of power. By saying the issue sat on the chassis side, Hadjar drew a line between the battery complaint and the underlying balance of the car. That made the next step more specific for the team, because the answer had to cover both how the car behaved and why it lacked pace. Bahrain gave Hadjar a near-podium run and a clear list of issues to solve before the next race.
