Report: Friday complete in Barcelona

Tyre degradation emerges as key factor after a disrupted day of practice running

Published

12 JUN 2026

Est. reading time

2 min

Atlassian Williams Racing are poring over 85 laps of running after a disrupted day of practice at the Barcelona-Catalunya Grand Prix.

It wasn’t the day Luke Browning was hoping for ahead of his first FP1 outing of the year, with an electrical issue denying him the opportunity to complete a single lap in the opening hour.

Carlos Sainz, as our sole runner in the session, completed 27 laps, with his best time coming on his only soft-tyre push. A 1:18.293 placed him P13.

Alex Albon was back in the car for FP2, and his FW48 was up and running straight away as the light turned green.

Our Thai driver reported that his car felt quite disconnected across both his medium- and soft-tyre runs. He ended the day in P19 after 29 laps, with a best time of 1:18.790.

Carlos also added 29 laps to his daily tally, and a 1:17.020 put him P14 at the end of the day's running.

As has historically been the case in Barcelona, tyre degradation again looks high, and neither driver completed a lap on the hard compound tyre.

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Sven Smeets, Sporting Director:

“A very messy day. Disappointing for Luke to miss FP1 with an electrical problem because we were looking forward to seeing him around Barcelona and because we didn’t get any learning from it, but happy that he has a session next time in Austria for him to get straight back into it. In FP2 we did a full run plan for both drivers but we still have some work to do, particularly on high fuel loads and with tyre degradation. There will be lots to do at the factory overnight but we have a good idea of the direction we want to go in and what we want to focus on tomorrow."

Carlos Sainz:

“A very tricky Friday. We know that this track exposes the weaknesses of this car, and over one lap, our pace is about where we expected to be in relation to the midfield. On long runs with high fuel we are significantly off the pace. All teams are struggling with degradation given the rough track surface and high temperatures, but we seem to be struggling more, which makes tyre management a challenge. There’s lots to look at overnight to get us in a stronger position for qualifying, so our focus will be on maximising the package we have in these conditions.”

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