2025 Qatar Grand Prix Sprint Race & Qualifying

James Vowles, Carlos Sainz & Alex Albon react after the Sprint Race and Qualifying in Qatar

Published

29 NOV 2025

Est. reading time

2 min

James Vowles, Team Principal: If anyone had said before the weekend that we'd be fighting in Q3 and qualifying in top seven, we would have taken it. Well done to Carlos, brilliant execution, and well done to the team. It was really tricky getting the tyres into the right window today, but P7 was a brilliant result. It puts Carlos on the clean side of the grid and bodes well for tomorrow's race. In the case of Alex, it was just on a knife edge with everyone getting the tyres working, and we just couldn't get into the right window. He had snaps in turn one every time and couldn't show his performance today. We'll regroup overnight and review how we can create the best opportunities for him in the race tomorrow. He's still quick, it's just about maximising the opportunities.

Carlos Sainz: We took another step in the right direction in qualifying today, building on the good momentum we’ve had this weekend. In Q3, the sticker on the floor of the garage stuck to my wheel and caused some damage to the bodywork as it unravelled, but despite this we still managed to replicate my Q2 time and maximise the lap. Qualifying on the clean side of the grid will hopefully give us an advantage at the start tomorrow. It will be a midfield battle, and the additional pitstops should make for interesting strategy choices. Going into the race in the top seven is better than we anticipated coming into Qatar, so I’m confident we can get a good result!

Alex Albon: We made some balance and setup changes after the Sprint and the car felt better in qualifying which is a positive takeaway. Ultimately, we just didn’t have the grip today; I was sliding around a bit and struggled to get the tyres in the right window in Q2. We found that we had decent grip with used sets in Q1, so we’ll review the operating windows and our out laps to better understand performance. Overtaking was difficult on this track in the Sprint, with it being a quiet race with not much action from my side. As a team this track wasn’t expected to suit us, but I’m optimistic for tomorrow and we’ll see what we can do during the race to make up some positions.

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