Report: Singapore Sprint qualifying complete
Alex Albon will start in P19 and Carlos Sainz in P22 after Sprint qualifying at the Marina Bay Street Circuit
Published
09 OCT 2026
Est. reading time
2 min
Singapore’s first Sprint weekend is underway and it proved to be a difficult first day for Atlassian Williams F1 Team at the Marina Bay Street Circuit.
Alex and Carlos left the garage on fresh mediums, as per the regulations for SQ1 and SQ2, and were the seventh and eighth cars on track. After an extra preparation lap to bring their FW48s into the optimum window, their first attempts were interrupted.
Sergio Perez hit the wall at turn 5, reversed out and continued, shedding his front wing through the middle sector, bringing out the red flag and sending everyone back to the pits.
When the session resumed, both drivers completed a final preparation lap before opening what would be their sole push lap of the phase.
Alex and Carlos both reported power issues over the radio within seconds of each other over the radio, and when they reached the line, Alex was classified P19 with a 1:36.130, while Carlos was classified P22.
This came after the only practice session of the weekend, which saw both cars run on just the hard and medium tyre compound, completing 61 laps between them. Carlos ended practice in P15, with Alex in P17.
James Vowles, Team Principal:
“A very frustrating evening. After the red flag in the first session of Sprint qualifying there was an issue with the way overtake mode was activated which definitely had an impact on our lap times. We are confident this will be fully investigated by the FIA.
“This issue doesn’t change the fact that our car performance isn’t where we want it to be – without the issue we had the potential to get both cars into the second part of Sprint qualifying but we will turn our attention now to getting the most out of tomorrow."
Alex Albon:
“It wasn't the Sprint qualifying we wanted, and we need to understand why the car felt so different from FP1. We'll dig into the data tonight, as Carlos and I are both experiencing some handling issues, compounded with the software issues in SQ1. There's work to do before tomorrow, and we'll see what we can learn in the Sprint to help set ourselves up for the rest of the weekend."
Carlos Sainz:
“We had another software issue that impacted multiple cars. It was momentary, but I lost power during my flying lap and the lap was compromised. On top of that, we had some issues in FP1 with the brakes and had to make some changes that weren’t ideal. Scrappy lap overall as I also locked up into turn 8, so a qualifying to forget. It’s disappointing but we have another chance to go again tomorrow."
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