Isack Hadjar has received a formal warning after the FIA stewards deemed him guilty of erratic driving at the United States Grand Prix.

The incident in question happened during the final hour of practice at the Circuit of The Americas. The FIA stewards felt that Hadjar’s actions could be considered as “retaliatory” in the direction of Williams’ Alex Albon.

Isack Hadjar receives formal warning from FIA stewards

Albon appeared to be well off the racing line into T1, but Hadjar went into the opening corner too hot, locking-up the front left and taking evasive action.

“What the **** was he doing?” Hadjar immediately fumed over team radio. The Frenchman could be seen waving a hand of frustration at Albon from the cockpit.

He added: “Just sleeping on the racing line,” while appearing to crowd the Williams driver off the road on corner exit.

Hadjar’s actions alerted the FIA stewards. That clash was initially noted, but a further update confirmed that a post-session investigation had been launched.

The decision was a formal warning for the Red Bull driver. The stewards made a point of stressing that had Hadjar’s erratic driving been classed as dangerous also, or instigated a collision, then he would have faced a more severe punishment.

“The stewards heard from the driver of Car 6 (Isack Hadjar), the team representative of Car 6 and reviewed video evidence,” the verdict begins.

“On the approach to Turn 1, Car 23 moved to the outside of the corner on the approach of Car 6, to avoid any impeding of that car. The driver of Car 6 locked brakes and had to abort the lap.

“He was obviously upset with this and took what could be described as “retaliatory action” by swerving towards Car 23.

“The stewards regard this as not only erratic but also an action that should be discouraged and hence impose the penalty of a warning to the driver.

“Had the action been dangerous or resulted in a collision, a more severe penalty would have been imposed.”

The Frenchman had struggled to gel with his RB22 throughout practice, but delivered when it mattered come qualifying, securing third on the grid.

Although still not happy with the end result, he was pleased with his “comeback”.

“It’s been a disaster of a weekend for me,” the Red Bull driver declared. “Had all my lap times deleted all the time. This morning I could not complete a single lap on the soft tyre.

“So yeah, I knew there was something in the car because there were times where I could do half a lap and I felt comfortable, but I could never finish it. But in qualifying, the car really came alive a bit more for me.

“We really dug deep on the setup. We tried so many things this weekend, and it really paid off. So, on that note, it’s really, really satisfying.

“But a bit gutted, not too much about the last lap, but more like the first attempt in Q3 because yes, the track was worse on that final lap, I was on a great lap, but it was the same for everyone.

“On that first lap, I really felt like I lost so much time with that massive tailwind I got, and I felt like there was a bit more today. I’m happy with the the comeback, let’s say.”

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Max Verstappen secured a front row slot in the sister Red Bull, falling 0.179s short of Mercedes’ Kimi Antonelli who will attempt to seal his first world championship on Sunday.

Asked if he believes a pole was in the RB22, Hadjar confirmed: “Yeah. Honestly, I was also quite surprised in Q2 by Max’s lap time on the used tyre. Even I felt happy, so I thought we had a shot at the front row.

“But yeah, Kimi did a fantastic job.”

Quizzed on whether he can challenge for the race win, Hadjar said: “Yeah. Also, it’s the two of us, so it’s a bit of an advantage. So we’ll try and use that.”