Isack Hadjar couldn't hide his disappointment after the Bahrain GP at Sepang, even though his team Red Bull Racing just claimed a massive milestone. Max Verstappen delivered the outfit's first ever victory with their in-house power unit, a genuinely special moment for the whole squad. But Hadjar? He was gutted. The French driver ended up fifth when he really should've been on the podium, and he's not shy about calling it exactly what it was.

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The day started pretty well for Hadjar. He moved up to fourth early on by getting past Liam Lawson, and when George Russell's Mercedes packed in, he inherited third place behind the safety car. That was looking promising. But then Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc came through to shuffle him down to fifth, and that's where the real frustration kicked in. A battery issue in those final three laps left him completely vulnerable, losing performance when he needed it most against the charging Ferraris.

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Hadjar explained the problem in detail after the race, describing a mysterious energy management glitch that cost him grip and pace at the worst possible moment. He said Lewis was 15 seconds up the road with just a couple of laps remaining, then suddenly the Mercedes driver was all over him. The whole weekend the Red Bull looked mega quick compared to everyone else, but when it mattered on race day, something just went sideways. He reckoned it was a chassis issue rather than anything to do with that new power unit, which at least gives the team a clear place to look for solutions.

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Looking ahead to Singapore, Hadjar knows he needs to bounce back properly. The pace was clearly there all weekend at Sepang, so fixing whatever went wrong with the battery management should be the priority. For now though, he's giving full credit to his team's achievement while accepting it's not the result he wanted. Sometimes that's just how it goes in Formula 1, even when your team's celebrating history.

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