Qatar GP: Unexpected Sprint qualifying for Williams Racing


By Williams Racing
November 29 2025

Going into the 2025 Qatar GP Sprint weekend the Atlassian Williams Racing Team spoke of their concern of how well the FW47 would perform on the Lusail track. The team downplayed their prospects but starting from FP and right through into Sprint Qualifying the results have being very encouraging for the team. Sprint Qualifying would see both Williams cars finish inside the top ten with Carlos Sainz 8th and Alex Albon 10th. Such were the gaps that both Carlos and Alex were close to been in the top six. It certain offers up some opportunities come the Saturday Sprint for a points result.

 
 Atlassian Williams Racing Brazilian GP Sprint Qualifying
 
Albon
 
Sainz

Carlos Sainz:
"It’s been a very positive day for us at a track where, on paper, we could have struggled. We chose an experimental set-up which we haven’t tried yet this year, and it seems to have paid off, so I’m happy with that. It’s encouraging to see both cars in SQ3 and, as usual, our car felt stronger on the harder compounds. There was less than a tenth between P4 and P8, so we’ll see what we can do tomorrow in the Sprint and later in qualifying!"
Albon

Alex Albon:
"It’s been a better start to the weekend than we thought it would be. We aren’t the quickest car out there, but we are in a decent position after only having one practice session today before Sprint qualifying. We came out of the garage too late in SQ3, so we had to scramble a bit to make it to the chequered flag. We have a decent car heading into the Sprint and qualifying, so we’ll look to maximise all our opportunities tomorrow."
 
Sainz
 
Albon
 
Lusail International Circuit, Qatar  Lap Length: 5.419km
Pos Driver Team Q1 Q2 Q3
8 C Sainz Williams Racing 1:21.438  1:21.172 1:20.542
10 A Albon Williams Racing 1:21.721 1:21.212 1:20.788
 
Sainz
 

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