Sainz rues ‘very tricky’ Qualifying that left him in the ‘middle of nowhere’ at his home GP in Spain

Carlos Sainz cited a myriad of problems after he was knocked out in the first stage of Qualifying for his home race at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya, leaving him eager to break into the top 10 in Sunday's Grand Prix.

The Spaniard has never failed to score points around this track in his F1 career, but exiting Qualifying in P18 leaves him with the prospect of a challenging recovery drive in order to maintain his success here.

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Williams have undergone a resurgence this year and regularly find themselves with at least one car in Q3, but neither Sainz nor Alex Albon were able to put together the necessary lap to progress, with the latter just missing out in P11.

One issue that Sainz experienced was an unusual kind of traffic as Franco Colapinto got stuck at the end of the pit lane towards the end of Q1, leaving the Williams in an unexpected position on the track and reduced time to improve his lap.

“Honestly, it was a very tricky Qualifying,” Sainz said following the session. “I thought today we had the pace to go through to Q3 if we put things together, but unfortunately we were out of position after Franco [Colapinto] had a problem in the pit lane.

“We went out really late in the middle of nowhere and we had to pass five or six cars on our push lap. Had loads of dirty air which compromised my performance, and in the end when the field is so tight, I think we were one-tenth and a half from P7 – we were P18.

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“We’re going to try our best to make it back to the points. Tomorrow will be a good day to try something different and try and come back.

“At the same time, obviously it’s Barcelona and P18 is not the best position to start, but we’re going to do everything possible.”

His team mate Alex Albon, who has only gone out in Q2 on three occasions this season, similarly suffered due to dirty air and traffic – as he referred to Ollie Bearman’s Haas as “dirty” over the radio, alleging that they were “purposefully slow in Sector 3”.

It had been a tough weekend for Albon even before Qualifying began, having sat out of FP1 to allow Victor Martins to make his F1 debut and subsequently experiencing a braking issue that limited him to just five laps in FP3.

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He explained: “It’s a shame to miss out on Q3 but at the same time I’m really happy – that’s the first time I’ve been through to Q2 [in Spain] with the Williams, and almost in Q3 so it shows all of us that we’re going in the right direction. We still have some work to do.”

Reflecting on his radio message, Albon added: “It’s fine margins. Honestly, Ollie’s not in the way, I don’t have to brake and I’m not getting disturbed by the object of his car, let’s say. We just carry so much dirty air, and the dirty air was a bit too dirty for Sector 3 and I missed out, but that’s how it is.”