REPORT: Saturday in Spain

Round 9 of the 2025 Formula 1 season continued with a final free practice session before Qualifying for the Spanish Grand Prix – with Carlos qualifying in 18th and Alex 11th.

Given the exceptional start to the season, the team might have become used to participating in all three parts of Qualifying in 2025, but it was not to be on this occasion – with Alex missing out on Q3 by just three one-hundredths of a second.

This was still a good result for Alex's half of the garage, who had a repair job on their hands after having to bring his FP3 session to a premature end with some brake temperature issues.

The team were able to fix the issues and give Alex a good setup for Qualifying – but the Circuit de Catalunya-Barcelona was never going to be an ideal match for the FW47.

Carlos meanwhile was devastatingly close to joning his teammate in Q2. The pair were separated by just two tenths – but nine places – which was testament to just how close the field were bunched in the race to progress through each part of Qualifying.

"The margins are so small but Q3 was there for the taking today," Alex commented afterwards.

"I had very limited low-fuel running due to missing FP1, and after having an issue in FP3, we went into this session compromised. Barcelona exposes some of the weaknesses in the DNA of this car, so all things considered, I think this is a good result at a track that’s challenging for us."

Carlos meanwhile, was understandably "very disappointed."

"After our struggles yesterday we made some good changes overnight that put us in contention for a good result," he said, adding, "Unfortunately, the delay in the pit lane due to an issue of the Alpine meant I was out of position for my second push in Q1 and had to overtake five or six cars during my lap.

"With such a tight field, having that amount of dirty air made me lose valuable tenths and that put a premature ending to my session in Q1, which is not good. I’ll do my best to fight through the field tomorrow and give my home crowd something to cheer for."

James Vowles, meanwhile, said he was "encouraged," adding that "despite where we were, we knew this was a difficult track for us, but actually across the weekend, we found good progress on how to move forward and there’s more learning to come tomorrow.

"This learning will enable us to be strong not just at future tracks in 2025, but also as we develop our 2026 car."