Williams Racing F1 Saudi Arabian GP - disappointing qualifying 18.03.2023: SAUDI ARABIAN GRAND PRIX Jeddah Corniche 17-19 March 2023 Saturday, March 18th 2023 Pos Driver Team Q1 Q2 Q3 17. A. Albon Williams Racing 1:29.994 - - 20. L. Sargeant Williams Racing No Time - -

SAUDI ARABIAN GRAND PRIX
Jeddah Corniche
17-19 March 2023
Saturday, March 18th 2023




Pos    Driver    Team    Q1    Q2    Q3


17.    A. Albon    Williams Racing    1:29.994    -    -
20.    L. Sargeant    Williams Racing    No Time     -    -


Dave Robson, Head of Vehicle Performance: Q1 was incredibly tight and today we were just on the wrong side of the cut-off. Although Logan’s first lap was deleted, his pace was legitimate and showed what the car was capable of. Alex struggled a bit more to get the tyres into a state where he was comfortable to attack the start of the lap and was therefore unable to get everything out of the car over a single lap.


Logan will have learned a lot from today and although he is frustrated at the result, this experience will be invaluable going forwards.



It is disappointing not to have progressed further into qualifying, but the car had good pace at high fuel yesterday and both drivers can have strong races tomorrow.



Alex Albon: We struggled with the rear tyres in qualifying, so we’ll have a look and understand why. We've been quick all weekend so it's just frustrating. Looking to tomorrow, we have a decent car in the race so I think we can do a good job. Today is obviously disappointing but hopefully we can turn something around for tomorrow.



Logan Sargeant: I put in a very fast lap but it was deleted as I crossed the pitlane entry by a margin. There was no performance gain so it’s frustrating, but I still had two more laps to deliver and I didn’t, so my apologies go to the team as they deserved more today. We need to take the positives from today, put this behind us and bounce back.

The car is quick, we have a lot of straight-line speed and fortunately it can be a crazy race here in Jeddah and there can be a lot of positions to pick up. Although I’ve given myself a lot more work than I needed to, I’m quite optimistic about tomorrow and I’ll make it up to the team.
 

 


Rebecca Banks, photos Williams