Isack Hadjar has branded his personal Bahrain GP in Malaysia as a "disaster" despite Red Bull's historic victory.
In a race Max Verstappen won the first grand prix for Red Bull's in-house power unit, the French driver could only finish in fifth, despite looking set for a podium finish.
After clearing Liam Lawson early on, Hadjar cemented his position in fourth, behind Verstappen and the two Mercedes drivers, but after the retirement of George Russell, Hadjar was promoted to run third behind the safety car.
However, Lewis Hamilton, who had been hunting the Red Bull for most of the race in his comeback drive, sliced past to take third, with Charles Leclerc further relegating the RB22 into fifth place - on a weekend Hadjar had looked strong.
Reflecting, Hadjar felt the race was "a disaster" for him personally as he described a sudden battery issue which had left him vulnerable to the Ferraris on the late safety car restart with three laps to go.
"I had no pace; something was wrong. I was maybe losing a second a lap compared to the Mercedes," Hadjar told media, including RacingNews365.
"The whole weekend we were quicker, and in the race, we were absolutely nowhere. The car was horrible to drive, and in the last couple of laps, I don't know how we ended up with no battery on the straight, so I couldn't defend against the Ferraris.
"Lewis was 15 seconds behind me, and then in a couple of laps, he was behind, and the whole weekend I was pretty fast, and we need to fix the issue and come back in Singapore and do better.
"It is on the chassis side; I think the power unit was fine; it is just that in the first two laps of the restart, I don't know why I was so down on the battery; it then stabilised itself, and I was fast again.
"Otherwise, I would have kept third, but I just had no grip. Even behind the safety car, I was feeling that I had no grip, and it was going to be a tough restart as it felt I was always on the same tyre.
"It's not a good day for me; I'm happy for the team, but it is a disaster."
Also interesting:
Join RacingNews365's Ian Parkes, Sam Coop and Nick Golding as they look back on the Azerbaijan GP but also look ahead to F1's return this weekend to Malaysia! Rumours linking Christian Horner with a return to the sport is a major talking point.
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