Alan Permain: Holding on to fourth place will be difficult.

      Isaac Hadjar has made it to the qualifying final more than once, but yesterday’s fourth place in Zandvoort was the best such result for the French driver, the 20-year-old Racing Bulls rookie.

      "Isaac’s result is all the more impressive when you consider that his Friday practices the day before were probably the worst of the season," commented Alain Permain, the team principal, on Sky Sports. "He completely missed the second practice and was very upset.

      But in the evening and through the night his engineers worked hard here at the track, and at the team's base they were also working on the simulator to find the optimal setup. He himself also did everything right in the decisive attempt.

      On Friday our drivers were doing quite well in the first sector of the lap, but on its high-speed section the car lacked front-wheel grip with the track, and whatever we did had no effect at all. But then, as I said, by working together we managed to sort out the problem, and Isaac, of course, also deserves praise.

      In the qualifying final he put in an incredible lap. And it’s not that his car was fitted with a fresh set of tyres — before that he did a lap on a scrubbed-in set and also posted a very good time. That helped him dial in correctly for the final attempt.

      We understand that holding fourth in the race will be very difficult, since Mercedes and Ferrari cars start behind us. But we’ll do everything we can, because our drivers know how to fight aggressively on track. If we do manage to finish in the positions we start from, i.e. fourth and eighth, that outcome would, of course, suit me. However, we don’t yet know what awaits us on Sunday..."

      It is also worth quoting Isaac himself, who admitted, among other things, that he was simply lucky: "To be honest, we had very big problems because of the wind, and I did too. I think that on this track you simply have to be lucky so that the car is not affected by sudden gusts of wind, the direction and strength of which change here every five seconds.

      Probably in the middle part of the lap I was just lucky because the wind did not bother me, and overall I felt the car was gripping the track much better. In such situations sometimes you also need luck to be on your side."