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.
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Williams Racing Japanese GP Qualifying Review |
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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." |
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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." |
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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." |
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Suzuka Circuit, Japan |
Lap Length: 5.807km |
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Pos |
Driver |
Team |
Q1 |
Q2 |
Q3 |
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9 |
A Albon |
Williams Racing |
1:28.218 |
1:27.783 |
1:27.615 |
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15 |
C Sainz |
Williams Racing |
1:28.209 |
1:27.836 |
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