REPORT: Mixed Fortunes in Montreal Qualifying

A rollercoaster Qualifying at the Circuit Gilles-Villeneuve for Atlassian Williams Racing ended with Alex Albon in P10 and Carlos Sainz in P17 for Sunday's race.

Alex took a third P10 qualification for the Canadian Grand Prix after also reaching the top-10 in 2023 and 2024 at the Montreal track, this time with a 1:11.907 effort.

Traffic on Carlos' final push lap in Q1 meant he could not break out of Quali's opening segment, ending the session frustrated in P17 after a 1:12.398 lap.

Alex and Carlos spent their Saturday with similar pace, as has often been the case this year, and FP3 ended with Carbono in P9 and P10 as the team prepared for Qualifying.

All teams again had to judge whether the C5 or C6 tyre would be the best for single-lap pace, and the Williams drivers spent the final Free Practice hour learning how Pirelli's softest compound behaved on the Montreal track.

It was the red-walled rubber we used during Q1, but the run plan had to pause as Alex's engine cover broke loose from his FW47.

The red flag stoppage to recover debris halted the session, leaving all 20 drivers with just five minutes to set their final laps.

Fast work by the Williams mechanics helped get Alex back on track, and his 1:12.090 was enough to reach Q2.

Carlos, on the other hand, was just three-tenths slower, even with Isack Hadjar’s Racing Bull obstructing the racing line at the Turn 6 braking zone.

The stewards will investigate the incident, but that was little consolation for Carlos, who would have escaped Q1 if he had not lost time on that lap.

Alex switched the strategy up in Q2, initially running used Softs before switching to the yellow-ringed C5 Medium compound to reach Q3.

Similarly, Alex tried Softs in the final 12 minutes of Quali, but abandoned the C6 tyre, and instead set a 1:12.056 on new Mediums before improving to 1:11.907 after swapping to Softs for his final run.

"Really impressive effort from the team getting Alex's car repaired and turned round, allowing Alex to put in a fantastic lap, keeping our chances of Q3 alive," James Vowles shared.

"It was a tough day for Carlos. He had the pace today but was significantly blocked by Hadjar, which ultimately put an end to our Qualifying.

"I think the biggest reflection we have is we were very quick yesterday and we seem to have slowed down a little bit today relative to the field. There are a couple of changes that happened around us; it's definitely warmer and the wind has changed, so we need to understand for the long term how to get the most out of the car irrespective of the conditions around us.

"For now, we’re looking forward to the race tomorrow. I think there’s still very much an opportunity to get Carlos fighting back up into points, and for Alex to move forwards."

"A frustrating Qualifying session," Alex reflected. "We should be top six or seven - that’s the pace we’ve been showing all weekend - so today has been a bit of a bogey session at the wrong time, unfortunately.

"The wind has changed 180 degrees from yesterday to today and that changes the balance of the car. We struggled as well with the tyres and the result was us falling back a lot from yesterday.

"With the bodywork issue we had in Q1, the team did a fantastic job to get the car ready and did a lot of work in a short amount of time. We’ve got some work to do tonight and ongoing work to understand the C6 tyre, as we need to get on top of that."

"There isn't much to say," Carlos summarised. "I spent pretty much all of Sector 1 behind the VCARB, to the point we nearly collided. I was 20 milliseconds away from Q2, so that pretty much ruins the weekend. It’s incredibly disappointing."