Isack Hadjar’s exceptional reaction time prevented a massive crash in the Monaco tunnel during Formula Two qualifying on Friday. The Frenchman was caught off guard by the slow-moving Rodin Motorsport car of Ritomo Miyata, forcing him to take preventative action.
Miyata was struggling with a power unit issue that forced him to abort his flying lap and reduced his speed to a crawl as he navigated the tunnel. With no power at his disposal, the Japanese racer was unable to do anything other than hug the right-hand side barrier and hope that no onrushing cars reached him in time.
Unfortunately for the reigning Super Formula and Super GT champion, he had the charging Campos Racing machine of Hadjar on his tail. The French racer steamed into the tunnel at full speed and with Miyata out of sight around the blind corner, barrelled straight towards his rival.
As he flashed through the tunnel, Miyata’s car came into view and Hadjar jerked his Campos to the left, narrowly avoiding the Rodin Motorsport racer at the last second. Despite the shift in trajectory needed to avoid a crash, he managed to avoid contact with the outside wall as well, keeping his car out of the wall before reaching the Nouvelle Chicane.
The incident was a terrifying one. If Hadjar’s reaction time had been a split-second slower, the 19-year-old would have made contact with the left-rear tyre of Miyata’s car, which would have likely sent him airborne and into the outside wall of the tunnel.
Thankfully, the Red Bull junior driver avoided what would have been catastrophic consequences. For Miyata, his session was all but over. The 24-year-old’s Mecachrome power unit continued to cause trouble after he returned to the pits, all but ending his hopes of scoring points on the streets of Monte Carlo.
Once Hadjar had moved past the shock of his terrifying near-miss, the Frenchman gathered himself and produced a mighty lap, earning himself a P3 starting grid slot for Sunday’s feature race, behind Richard Verschoor and Victor Martins.
The teenager, who is well-fancied by Red Bull advisor Helmut Marko, has won each of the last two feature races in F2 and sits just nine points behind championship leader and Sauber junior prospect, Zane Maloney. With a strong qualifying result under his belt in Monaco, Hadjar has a chance to end the weekend atop the standings.
