Report: Sprint qualifying complete at Silverstone

Both Atlassian Williams F1 Team cars made it through to SQ2 at the home of British motorsport

Published

03 JUL 2026

Est. reading time

3 min

The British Grand Prix weekend is underway at Silverstone, with a bumper Friday crowd treated to competitive action as Sprint Qualifying followed FP1.

Atlassian Williams F1 Team brought a small update to the car this weekend, and after one day on track, it appears the gap to the midfield has closed following two successive tricky weekends.

Both cars progressed through SQ1 after sitting P15 and P16 heading into the final runs of the opening phase, knowing improvements would be needed as they were the last cars to cross the line.

Carlos and Alex both delivered on their final SQ1 attempts, with Alex securing P14 with a 1:30.779, while Carlos progressed in P16 after posting a 1:31.073.

SQ2 was always going to be tough, and Carlos was pleased with his first attempt in the second stage.

“I don’t think I can go any quicker, this was a very good lap, it’s as good as it gets,” he shared over the radio.

That 1:30.197 would ultimately secure him P15 for the Sprint, while Alex reported the return of the torque struggles he had experienced in practice after setting a 1:30.650 for P16.

Earlier in the day, FP1 consisted mainly of running on the hard compound, before a late switch to the softs.

The team completed 63 laps across both cars in the opening hour, gathering vital data for the rest of the weekend while building understanding of the updated FW48.

P15 for Carlos and P16 for Alex (pictured) ahead of Saturday's Sprint

James Vowles, Team Principal:

“It's good to see we've made a step with the update package, but obviously there's a long way to go. All the other teams around us are equally moving at pace, and we have to out-develop them. We can see now the balance is more together, and the car through the corners has improved. But yet to be understood is that we seem to be losing quite a bit of time on the straights. We need to understand that in more detail because that will unlock the next step of performance. We have some things to try and we will attack the rest of the weekend."

Carlos Sainz:

“A small step forward this weekend, maybe smaller than we would have liked, with the new front wing - and it seems to be working well, helping us out-qualify both Haas cars. Unfortunately, we're still off the pace of the top 10, but we'll keep pushing. Today's lap was probably one of the best ones of the season, putting everything together, so I'll take that with me and see what we can do from here the rest of the weekend."

Alex Albon

“That’s Friday practice and Sprint qualifying wrapped up here at Silverstone. I struggled a bit on my last run in SQ2, but that was the most we could manage today. The new front wing was a step forward for us, and that difference was what put us in front of the Haas cars today, so hopefully there’s more to come in the Sprint tomorrow. It's still not easy to get the car into the right window, and our weaknesses are the same, but we're making small steps in the right direction."

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