Williams had a quite disappointing Sprint qualifying in Shanghai this Friday (13). Both Carlos Sainz and Alexander Albon did not have enough performance to advance and stayed in SQ1.
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The Spaniard started the day complicated in China, failing to run much in the single free practice. Then, in the qualifying session, he clocked 1min34s761, missed SQ2 by just 0s170 and will start in 17th.
“This weekend was always going to be difficult for us, with this circuit exposing our car’s weaknesses. Losing half of FP1 didn’t help either, as I couldn’t prepare properly for this session and had to adapt with every lap. At the moment, we first need a trouble-free weekend before we look for better results,” he evaluated.
“I will use this weekend to test different setups and try to make up for the track time I’ve lost so far. The goal is to maximize our performance and continue learning to help the team,” he added.
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Meanwhile, the Anglo-Thai will start immediately behind his teammate, lining up in 18th position in the field.
“It was a confusing day and clearly this is not the result we wanted from Sprint qualifying. We have several limitations at the moment that we are trying to understand, so we need to go back to the drawing board and have a clearer view for tomorrow. As always, we will give our all in front of the Chinese fans in the Sprint race and tomorrow’s qualifying sessions,” he concluded.
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