Carlos Sainz, first breakthrough at Williams
Before the season began, Carlos Sainz had identified eighth place as the target for qualifying and the race. Considering the four top teams and the typical drop in performance from at least one of the “favourites,” P8 became a small victory for the Spaniard at Williams. Now that he has achieved it in Bahrain qualifying, however, Carlos Sainz is not content and wants to go even further.
Carlos Sainz’s words
“It seems we’ve made a step in the right direction, but we need to keep our heads down and continue trying different things,” said the Smooth Operator. “I feel I still have room to improve and I want to aim higher than P8! That said, I’m happy with qualifying and definitely felt more in control, knowing where to push, where there’s potential time on the lap, and staying disciplined in my driving. I’m confident in what we’re doing, the speed is there, and I have a great team around me — I just need to stick to my plan and keep taking the right steps, starting with the race, where I’ll try to score some points.”
Alex Albon’s words
As for Alex Albon, it was a disappointing session. The Anglo-Thai driver will start 15th due to Nico Hülkenberg’s penalty for exceeding track limits: his Q1 elimination surprised everyone and resulted from some hesitation exiting the pits, which left Albon at the back of the group and denied him an optimal outlap. However, his Q1 lap time would have been enough to make the cut had the stewards penalized Nico Hülkenberg in time, without promoting the German to Q2.
“There was a lot of confusion. We spent about three minutes waiting for all the other cars to pass us, stuck in traffic at the pit exit, which meant losing around 25–30 degrees of tyre temperature,” commented the #23. “When that happens, you end up entering turn 1 without grip. I had to overtake three cars on my outlap just to get the lap in. Unfortunately, that’s how it went. Usually, we’re very good at these things, but we got it wrong. As for the race, we have the best pace among the midfield teams and at least on this track, you can overtake! Scoring points will be tough, but it’s possible, and I’ll give it everything.”
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