It was a tough day for Williams in F1 British GP qualifying, with both drivers going out in Q2 after a season of mixed results so far. Carlos Sainz and Alex Albon’s qualifying sessions didn’t reflect the potential they had shown earlier in the day. There were no major crashes or mechanical issues, just a mix of poor timing, wasted tyres and tight margins.
Sainz falls just short in British GP qualifying
Carlos Sainz was the closer of the two. He set a 1:26.175 in Q1 and went faster in Q2 with a 1:25.746. It wasn’t enough to progress and he ended the session in P11, just seconds away from the top ten.
“Yeah, it’s always painful when you’re 30 milliseconds off Q3. But it hasn’t changed my life. We’ve been trying hard all weekend to solve our set-up issues and our reliability issues. So the quali was never going to be perfect.”
“There wasn’t really a moment where it fell apart. The lap was decent. The team executed what they planned. It just wasn’t quite fast enough.
“I think we managed to do a decent lap. We put everything together. We just are not where we would like to be.”
He has been consistent in saying that the car feels fine to drive. The bigger issue is that clean weekends have been hard to come by for various reasons.
“Yeah, but my feeling with the car has always been more or less OK. It’s always been a problem of execution and reliability.”
Sainz made it clear that he isn’t satisfied with the result, even if starting P11 gives him a small strategic advantage.
“I’m never satisfied with P11. I’m not satisfied seeing these guys fight for Pole from here [the media pen]. Given the struggles we’ve had recently and how difficult the weekend has been for us, we did a good lap when it mattered. Now we’ll see what we can do tomorrow to put it together.”
Albon’s run compromised by strategy and traffic
Albon’s session took a hit before Q2 had even properly begun. After getting through Q1 with a 1:26.093, he was sent out on a fresh set of softs just moments before Franco Colapinto crashed. The red flag came out almost immediately, making the run meaningless and wasting one of the team’s new tyre sets. It was a costly moment for Williams in British GP qualifying, turning what could’ve been a Q3 run into one of their most frustrating Saturdays of the season.
“Yes, I think internally we need to review what went on there because we put on a set of tyres when Franco crashed and then we went out on track when it was quite clear it was going to be a red flag so we ended up, basically we immediately wasted a set in qualifying. We went into Q2 on a used set of tyres.”
Even with that disadvantage, Albon got a decent first lap in. But he knew it wouldn’t be enough. The second run could have given him another shot, but the timing was off again. This time, it was traffic and track position.
“Until this point we’re looking good, we’re feeling good. I actually did a pretty good lap on a Q2 run one considering it’s used tyres and then we go into Q2 run two and we then go out at the very front of the pack where Max is and Max’s out lap is about 15–20 seconds a lap slower than ours so we then do Q2 run two on our final used set, basically not even close to being ready. Q2 was obviously compromised, let’s say that.”
Albon questions Williams’ British GP strategy
He didn’t hold back on his thoughts. Williams often sends their drivers out early during qualifying. Albon said it plainly. It’s not working.
“We need to review we generally do go on the early sides in qualifying, we like to go on the early sides. Today was too much, we need to understand why we like to go so early all the time.”
He ended the session P14. The frustration was obvious. The car had more to give but the laps just didn’t line up when they needed to.
“I mean we’ve been quick all weekend and we were quick in Q1, we were quick in Q2 run one and then it’s like, yeah, P14 so frustrating, very frustrating.”
Eyes forward to Sunday
Both drivers will be looking to turn things around when lights go out on Sunday. With rain in the forecast and plenty of unknowns still in play, there’s every chance for Williams to recover positions and leave Silverstone with points on the board. Sitting fifth in the Constructors’ standings, every result matters as they look to stay ahead of the midfield pack and keep pressure on the top four. Heading into the British GP, Williams will be aiming to make up ground and convert their pace into points.
