REPORT: Two cars in top 10 after Qatar Sprint qualifying

A strong start to our weekend in Qatar

Published

28 NOV 2025

Est. reading time

2 min

For the second time in three Sprint events, Atlassian Williams Racing had both cars in SQ3 and are in the hunt for points on Saturday.

Carlos Sainz will start from P8 with Alex Albon in P10, maximising the conditions and making minimal mistakes on a busy first day on track at Lusail.

The evening began with the only practice session, in unrepresentative sunset conditions. Our duo were quickly up to speed, and ended the hour in P4 and P7.

After the sun had dipped full beyond the horizon, the pair then sailed through both SQ1 and SQ2, and were P5 and P6 after their first SQ3 laps – Alex with a 1:20.788 and Carlos’ banking 1:20.812.

Carlos, who finished P3 the last time he qualified in the top 10 for a Sprint, was able to shave more time off on his final push, recording a 1:20.542.

Alex couldn’t extract any more time on his last attempt, meaning we’ll push forward from P8 and P10 tomorrow.

“It’s been a very positive day for us at a track where, on paper, we could have struggled,” Carlos shared.

“We chose an experimental set-up which we haven’t tried yet this year, and it seems to have paid off, so I’m happy with that. It’s encouraging to see both cars in SQ3 and, as usual, our car felt stronger on the harder compounds.

“There was less than a tenth between P4 and P8, so we’ll see what we can do tomorrow in the Sprint and later in qualifying!”

“It’s been a better start to the weekend than we thought it would be,” Alex shared.

“We aren’t the quickest car out there, but we are in a decent position after only having one practice session today before Sprint qualifying.

“We came out of the garage too late in SQ3, so we had to scramble a bit to make it to the chequered flag. We have a decent car heading into the Sprint and qualifying, so we’ll look to maximise all our opportunities tomorrow.”

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