Report: Alex battles to P15 as Carlos' home race ends in retirement at the Madring
A difficult afternoon for Atlassian Williams F1 Team at the Madring’s inaugural Spanish Grand Prix
Published
13 SEP 2026
Est. reading time
2 min
Alex Albon brought the FW48 home in P15 after a tense final stint, while Carlos Sainz's afternoon ended early after carrying damage from the opening lap.
Both cars got off the line well at the inaugural Grand Prix at the Madring, though Carlos made contact with Yuki Tsunoda at turn 1, picking up minor damage to his right-hand endplate and floor. Both drivers made early progress regardless – Alex up to P14 having passed Gabriel Bortoleto and Tsunoda, and Carlos to P18 after getting by Fernando Alonso and Valtteri Bottas – before Bortoleto repassed Alex on the run down to turn 2 the following tour.
The early laps brought their share of niggles, with Alex managing tyre wear on the front-left and Carlos reporting deployment issues through the car. A slow Lewis Hamilton, struggling with brakes, handed both cars a position on lap six.
A Virtual Safety Car on lap 15, brought out by Lance Stroll's brake failure at turn 20, gave the team the chance to bring Alex in for hard tyres, dropping him to P17. The subsequent pit cycle shuffled the order, with Carlos climbing to P15 by running longer having started on hard tyres.
Carlos' race took a turn on lap 20. Five laps after contact with Alonso at Turn 5, he was handed a five-second penalty for the incident, and served at his next stop on lap 24 alongside a fresh front wing, a switch to medium tyres and a change to plan B strategy.
Alex spent the second half of the race in a battle with Ollie Bearman's Haas. Carlos, now on his second set of hard tyres following a stop on lap 32, chased down Bottas for P18, cutting the gap to 3.7 seconds by lap 41 – but blue flags for the lead pack interrupted his charge, and the team called him in to retire the car shortly after lap 44, damage and pace no longer justifying a way back.
Alex held on through a tense final stint, defending against Bearman all the way to lap 47 before the gap finally opened up. The closing laps proved difficult as his tyres cooled and grained, with a lock-up at turn 7 on lap 56 nearly catching him out, but he crossed the line to secure P15, wrapping up a weekend that brought little reward for the team.
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