Williams driver Carlos Sainz has defined how ground injury and brake issues contributed to his shock Q1 exit throughout Qualifying for the Austrian Grand Prix.
Sainz, who additionally fell on the first Qualifying hurdle in Spain and Canada, struggled to make an influence when Saturday’s grid-deciding session acquired beneath approach on the Pink Bull Ring.
Having wound up nineteenth, forward of solely Kick Sauber’s Nico Hulkenberg, the Spaniard expressed main considerations to his engineer over the radio as he returned to the pit lane.
“There’s injury within the automobile, for positive,” Sainz reported. “The automobile is undriveable. Once I say undriveable, it’s pulling beneath braking, no load in high-speed. Undriveable.”
When he arrived within the media pen to talk to the world’s tv broadcasters, Sainz confirmed that Williams had subsequently noticed automobile injury – in addition to different expensive points.
“We’ve simply seen that we had fairly a bit of injury on the ground, so we had been missing various downforce,” he stated. “We additionally had a difficulty with the brakes from the beginning of Quali, so too many issues going to on to really push round a high-confidence monitor like this.”
Requested about what may be potential within the race, Sainz added: “[It’s been] a really bizarre weekend. We’ve been very fast within the lengthy runs with the tougher tyres, after which on delicate tyres we by no means appear to be aggressive. We’ll have to take a look why.”
It was a extra encouraging session for Sainz’s crew mate, Alex Albon, who caught the attention in Q1 and went on to qualify twelfth – albeit with automobile injury additionally impacting his efforts.
“Actually, I’m actually completely happy,” he stated, regardless of simply lacking out on Q3. “We broken the ground in Q1 in the course of my fast lap.
“I ran vast by means of Flip 7 and we had been fixing the rear with tape. Then we had that crimson flag, which was possibly the worst-timed crimson flag that may very well be there.
“We ended up doing our final Q2 lap on used tyres and a broken ground and we managed twelfth, so I’m actually completely happy.”
Previewing Sunday’s motion, the Thai-British racer commented: “We truly had good race tempo [in practice]. I believe, truthfully, likely according to the place we certified, possibly somewhat bit quicker than that also.
“We’ve acquired some good tyre choices, I believe we saved a pair extra mediums than different groups, so let’s see the way it goes.”
Williams head into the race holding a cushty fifth place in the Teams’ Championship standings on 55 factors, 27 away from Haas and Racing Bulls.
