2025 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix Qualifying

James Vowles, Carlos Sainz & Alex Albon react after qualifying

Published

06 DEC 2025

Est. reading time

2 min

James Vowles, Team Principal: First of all, congratulations to Max. Really impressive laps out there and he was dominant through sector 3. Speaking of which, that was the sector we couldn't quite get right today. The gaps were miniscule. Just a handful of milliseconds separated five cars but that is the state of the sport today and it's brilliant – it is really the highest level of competition we have ever seen, and you have to get absolutely everything perfect. In the case of Carlos today, he was strong everywhere, we just need to review what else we can do to get more performance out of sector 3. With Alex, when the field is this tight, just a tenth punishes you, but he is competitive and I'm confident we can come back fighting tomorrow. These races are unpredictable and we're in the best seat in the house to see what happens on race day.

Carlos Sainz: I’m relatively happy with where we are today, as we made a good step from the practice sessions. It was one of the tightest sessions I remember, with only one tenth separating P6-P15 in Q2, and I unfortunately fell short by 0.008 of a second. For tomorrow, it’s looking to be on the limit between a one and a two-stop race, which can result in interesting strategies. I’m confident we can fight to make our way into the points, and the aim is to finish off the 2025 season strong!

Alex Albon: Difficult session. We couldn’t get the tyres in the right window and hit traffic in the final sector of the lap. There were a few small details which I couldn’t quite nail and, with such a tight field, every millisecond counts. Strategy will make a big difference in the race tomorrow, so it will be interesting to see how each team approaches it. Tomorrow will be tough, but we’ll look to take advantage of any opportunities that come our way.

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