Chinese Grand Prix: Atlassian Williams Sprint - Qualifying


By Williams Racing
March 22 2025

The second day of the 2025 Chinese GP would see the Atlassian Williams Racing Team having to cope with the demands of the Sprint followed by qualifying for Sunday's race. Both Alex Albon and Carlos Sainz had difficult Sprint's with both having to contend with tyre issues. Alex would finish in 11th and Carlos 17th. Post the Sprint the team would make significant changes to their setups hoping to put the drivers into a better position going into Qualifying. Agan we would see Alex finish ahead of Carlos with the pair ending the session in 10th and 15th. But the margin between the pair was so small and had come down to just one corner. Next is Sunday's race where tyre management will again be an issue.

 
 Atlassian Williams Racing Chinese GP Sprint - Qualifying
 
Sainz
 
Sainz

Carlos Sainz:
"Still struggling with the same issues during Qualifying. As soon as I begin to push, I lose the feeling with the car in certain corners and struggle to improve the total lap time. I’m trying to make the most of it, but the reality is that I am unfortunately not there yet, especially in the last sector. I know I’ll end up getting there with the car, it’s now a matter of shortening the process as much as possible. Regarding tomorrow’s race, we’ve made some big set-up changes to the car and hopefully we will be in better shape than this morning. Graining will again be key, so let’s see what we can achieve."

Albon

Alex Albon:
"It’s so close out there! I think we had the whole of the midfield spread by a tenth by our calculations. Q1 and Q2 were honestly almost the same because the margins were so close. I’m very happy to have executed well and get clean laps on the board. The wind was gusting quite a lot during that session and it’s easy to make mistakes in those conditions, but I think I was consistent out there. It’s difficult to do that on a tricky track like this, it’s easy to overdrive and the tyres are so sensitive. It felt like I was in a good rhythm. We made some set-up changes today but there’s still a lot to do. I’m happy to get through but it’s going to be a tough race tomorrow."

 

James Vowles Team Principal:
"Sprint weekends are always challenging and this one is no different. We didn’t have the car in the right place this morning and in the Sprint Race, we suffered more graining than near enough all the cars around us and had to try our best to manage it. We made some quite significant set-up changes for both drivers for Qualifying and for the Grand Prix, which should put us in a better position. As we said before the season started, the field is so tight, and just milliseconds really makes a difference between making it to Q3 or being on the outside of it. With Carlos, we can absolutely see improvement; in reality it was just one corner that differentiated him from Alex, but it bodes well for the race tomorrow."

 
Albon
 
Track: Shanghai International Circuit, Shanghai Lap Length: 5.451 km
Sprint Race
Pos Driver Team Finish Pos Time/Gap Fastest Lap
9 A Albon Williams Racing 11 31:19.257 (+39.292) 1:37.344
13 C Sainz Williams Racing 17 31:31.341 (+51.376) 1:35.819
 
Qualifying
Pos Driver Team Q1 Q2 Q3
10 A Albon Williams Racing 1:31.503 1:31.595 1:31.706
15 C Sainz Williams Racing 1:31.628  1:31.840 -
 
Albon
 
Albon
 

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