Report: Disappointing Sprint qualifying in China

Both cars will line up on the ninth row of the grid for the first Sprint of the season

Published

13 MAR 2026

Est. reading time

2 min

It proved to be a frustrating Friday for the team at the Shanghai International Circuit, with both cars eliminated in SQ1 during Sprint Qualifying.

Earlier in the day, the single free practice session saw Alex complete 31 laps, setting a best time of 1:35.480 to finish P16. Carlos’ session began in disrupted fashion, but he was able to get running later on and completed 18 laps, posting a 1:35.679 that placed him P17.

Sprint qualifying saw both drivers take a double preparation lap before their first push attempts. Carlos’ opening lap of 1:34.845 briefly put him P15, while Alex’s 1:35.305 left him P17.

Both drivers circulated once more ahead of a final push lap, needing an improvement to progress into SQ2. Carlos was able to find more time, improving to a 1:34.761, but missed the cut for SQ2 by just 0.17s, ultimately ending up in P17.

Alex, meanwhile, suffered a lock up at Turn 11 on his final run and was unable to improve on his earlier benchmark, concluding the session in P18.

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James Vowles, Team Principal:

“Tough day, which isn’t a surprise after Melbourne, but doesn’t hurt any less as a result. This evening will be about reflection and looking at what other approaches we can do to make sure we maximise the opportunities across the remainder of the weekend, and looking at how we might be able to extract more out of this car before we bring performance to it.

Carlos Sainz

“This weekend was always going to be difficult for us with this circuit exposing the weaknesses in our car. Missing half of FP1 didn’t help either, as I couldn’t prepare properly for this session and had to adapt every lap. As it stands, we first need a clean weekend before aiming for better results. I'll use this weekend to test different setups and try to make up for the track time I’ve lost so far. The target is to maximise our performance and keep gathering learnings to help the team.”

Alex Albon

“It’s been a confusing day and clearly this isn’t the result we wanted out of Sprint quali. We have multiple limitations at the moment we are trying to understand so we need to go back to the drawing board and get a clearer picture ahead of tomorrow. As always we’ll give everything we have in front of the Chinese fans for tomorrow’s Sprint race and qualifying sessions.”

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13 MAR 2026