Japanese GP: Mixed Qualifying for Atlassian Williams Racing


By Williams Racing
April 5 2025

Qualifying for the 2025 Japanese GP would see the Atlassian Williams Racing Team come away with a mixed result with Alex Albon finishing 9th and prior to a penalty Carlos Sainz was 12th. Alex was again able to bring his FW47 into Q3 for the third time after what was a competitive session. For Carlos his qualifying saw him feel that Q3 was reachable but he felt he did not get the best on his last lap. Add onto this the penalty that Carlos would receive as a result of impeding another driver. This would see Carlos drop to 15th after a three grid place penalty. But it was an encouraging aspect of the days running was that the team felt they had a good race car for Sunday's race.

 
 Williams Racing Japanese GP Qualifying Review
 
Sainz
 
Albon

Alex Albon:
"That wasn’t bad! I’m happy with another Q3; we have a pretty consistent car! My best lap felt very different to the other laps though. We need to go through it all and understand why it changed, but that lap felt how I wanted it to feel. The balance that I’d been chasing was there. There are a couple of corners on the track that we’ve struggled with so if we can improve on those, we’ll be even more competitive. Tomorrow looks like it’s going to start off wet and then get drier and drier, so the call to switch will be important. It should be a good race."

Sainz

Carlos Sainz:
"Mixed feelings today. We’ve made some good progress this weekend and I felt a lot more comfortable with the car; there are still a few things to adjust here and there of course, but this track requires a lot of confidence and I do feel we’ve taken a step forward. On the other hand, I lost around a tenth on S3 on my last lap, so Q3 was reachable and I’m obviously not happy I missed it. However, I prefer to take the positives from today and focus on tomorrow’s race, where we’ll try to do everything to gain some positions and have a positive Sunday."

 

James Vowles Team Principal:
"It’s great to see that we are at our third race of the season and the car has remained competitive and able to get into Q3. Carlos has made some brilliant steps in the time since China, and you can see his performance is really coming together now. I’m proud of Alex; he put together a great lap and, from his own commentary, I think there was more in it, but the want and desire to be further ahead than where we are is a good thing. What’s more positive is we have made more of a race than Qualifying car. Let’s see what happens tomorrow with the conditions, but I’m looking forward to it."

 
Albon
 
Sainz
 
Suzuka Circuit, Japan Lap Length: 5.807km
Pos Driver Team Q1 Q2 Q3
9 A Albon Williams Racing 1:28.218 1:27.783 1:27.615
15 C Sainz Williams Racing 1:28.209 1:27.836 -
 
Albon
 

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