Jacques Villeneuve warns Japanese Grand Prix star to keep his mouth shut on the radio, ‘I’ve never heard that’

Suzuka is regarded as a true drivers’ circuit, and individual skill came to the fore in Saturday’s qualifying session. Above all, Max Verstappen produced one of the greatest laps of his career to steal pole from McLaren.

Damon Hill said Verstappen refused to be beaten despite Red Bull’s struggles up to that point in the weekend. The top three all qualified within half a tenth – one of the closest sessions ever.

Elsewhere, Isack Hadjar made it back-to-back P7 starts for Racing Bulls, and Alex Albon continued his 100% Q3 record at Williams. Oliver Bearman delivered a ‘beyond impressive’ showing for Haas to qualify 10th while teammate Esteban Ocon went out in Q1.

Conversely, the challenge of the Japanese Grand Prix venue was laid bare by the struggles of Jack Doohan. Doohan’s ‘laziness’ may have cost him as a careless FP2 crash knocked his weekend off course.

Jacques Villeneuve tells Isack Hadjar he shouldn’t have made seat complaints over radio

While Kimi Antonelli was one spot ahead, Hadjar was perhaps the pound-for-pound rookie of the day. He starts six places ahead of new teammate Liam Lawson.

The Frenchman’s progression from Q1 appeared to be under threat as he complained of serious discomfort behind the wheel. Racing Bulls mechanics had to make multiple adjustments to his seatbelts.

Speaking on the radio in Q1, Hadjar said the cockpit issues were affecting his ‘focus’ and rendering the car undriveable.

“I don’t know what’s wrong with me man,” he said. “I just can’t focus. I have so much lap time to find but it’s just not driveable.”

Reacting in commentary for Sky Sports, F1 legend Jacques Villeneuve questioned why he was making these comments on an open channel. In future, Villeneuve says he should wait until he’s back in the garage.

“That was a funny radio comment,” he said. “I’ve never heard that coming from a driver. Very honest, brutally honest.

“You can’t say it on the radio. Keep it in the car, wait until you talk to your engineers.”

He later added: “You have to wonder, why wasn’t that issue present in the first two races?”

What Racing Bulls engineer privately said about Isack Hadjar before Japanese Grand Prix

Hadjar has perhaps benefitted from the publicity being elsewhere this week. His old teammate Yuki Tsunoda has been promoted to Red Bull at the expense of Lawson.

But he made the most of his stability and he already looks supremely quick over a single lap. Hadjar even outdid 2015 Verstappen in China by going second in Q1.

He still needs to get points on the board, but may have done so already in China had Racing Bulls not opted for a two-stop strategy. It’s feasible that he ends the weekend as the second-highest scorer in the Red Bull stable.

Anthony Davidson has commended Hadjar’s response after his brutal debut in Australia, where a formation lap crash brought him to tears. His engineer told the Sky pundit he’d been ‘super impressed’ with his start in F1.