Report: P18 and P19 in Hungarian Grand Prix qualifying
Three-hundredths split our pair in qualifying on difficult weekend at the Hungaroring
Published
25 JUL 2026
Est. reading time
2 min
Qualifying is complete at the 2026 Hungarian Grand Prix, and it was a Q1 elimination for both Carlos Sainz and Alex Albon.
After three hours of practice running, it was clear that any progression when the time came to race the stopwatch would likely require attrition elsewhere, but a clean 18-minute opening phase meant our drivers were up against it.
Alex, qualifying ahead of his 100th start for Atlassian Williams F1 Team, delivered three clean laps, with his best coming on his final push, setting a 1:20.658 to claim P19.
Carlos had a wide moment at Turn 4 on his opening attempt but delivered two more laps, edging ahead of his teammate by three-hundredths of a second with a 1:20.621 to take P18.
Earlier in the day, our duo ended the final hour of practice in P20 and P21 after running exclusively on the soft compound. Both recorded quicker times in the closing stages, but they were deleted for track limits infringements.
It looks set to be a challenging Sunday for the team, but our eyes are firmly fixed on the 70 laps ahead at this historic venue.
Carlos Sainz:
“Tough weekend. The balance of the car was different in each session, and on my side of the garage, we had some issues at the rear of the car which made the car unpredictable and difficult to find the optimal setup. Even if we had optimised everything, I think this is the maximum that was possible today in terms of grid position for tomorrow.”
Alex Albon:
“We expected a tough weekend, but the car felt very different from yesterday and we're still struggling to pinpoint the reason for these inconsistencies between sessions. Over the last few races, we've got a better understanding of which parts aren't performing, but it's still hard to answer why. Aston have taken a big step forward this weekend, which has been something we’ve needed to factor in. Carlos and I have had different issues over the weekend, which we'll be looking into ahead of tomorrow's race, and we'll see what we can do.”
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