The medical verdict is in. Isack Hadjar is cleared to race at the Azerbaijan Grand Prix, ending a three-race absence that ran back to a fractured wrist sustained during summer-break training. Red Bull announced the return in a team statement, with Hadjar due back at the Baku City Circuit on Thursday.

Team principal Laurent Mekies had made the condition plain in the days leading up to the announcement.

“If he feels close to 100%, we go for it,” Mekies said.

“If he feels recovery is not completed, we will stick to our approach to put his recovery first.”

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Hadjar sustained the injury on a boxing bag during Formula 1’s August summer break. He was told to stay out of the car to avoid making it worse, and sat out the Dutch, Italian and Spanish rounds.

It was, as he put it, “my first injury ever in my whole existence”, and being sidelined felt “weird”.

Lawson’s three-race audition

Liam Lawson made a case for himself in patches. He finished seventh at Zandvoort and sixth in Madrid, with a bruising Monza in between where a pit-lane start and contact left him outside the points.

Red Bull did not stint on the thanks. The team “would like to sincerely thank Liam for his professionalism, dedication and hard work over the past three races”, the statement read.

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Yuki Tsunoda took Lawson’s Racing Bulls seat for the three-race window. Racing Bulls thanked him for “scoring some very valuable points” over the stint.

Antonelli closing on the title in Baku

The bigger picture in the paddock this week sits at the top of the drivers’ table. Kimi Antonelli leads the championship on 292 points, 81 clear of Mercedes team-mate George Russell after winning the Spanish Grand Prix. With nine rounds left and 233 points still on offer, the Italian is closing on his first world title.

Hadjar’s absence has cost him ground of his own. He sits eighth on 71 points, one place and 12 points ahead of Lawson, who is ninth on 59 after the three-race Red Bull loan.

Practice at the Baku City Circuit begins on Friday. Hadjar is back in the paddock for the media session on Thursday.

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