How Hadjar cleverly handled his comeback to claim a podium in Baku

Everybody loves a comeback story. That’s why Isack Hadjar’s Baku podium was met with well wishes and good feelings up and down the paddock on Saturday evening.

Now, I realise Hadjar wasn’t sitting out for a full season or anything like that, but three races ‘on the couch’ as he put it, feels like an eternity for a driver.

Usually when a driver has a mid-season sabbatical like he had, there are one of two outcomes on the other side of it. Often, the driver comes back with something to prove.