Sainz says Williams “underdelivered” after Canadian qualifying setback

Carlos Sainz admitted Williams “underdelivered” in qualifying for the Canadian Grand Prix after the team slipped to P15 and P18 despite showing promising pace earlier in the weekend.

Feature image credit: Pirelli

Williams have spent much of weekend fighting around the top 10, with Sainz converting that speed into P10 in the Sprint but the team failed to take that performance into qualifying as their rivals appeared to find more pace in the closing stages.

Reflecting on the result, Sainz felt the team had left positions on the table.

He said: “We underdelivered today. We should’ve been in the top 12 with a good lap. In the whole session we were fighting inside the top 11 positions.”

The Spaniard pointed to issues with the front tyres during his final run in Q2, believing the lost time in sector one proved costly.

Sainz explained: “Unfortunately in Q2 run two I didn’t feel good with the front tyre and we lost two or three tenths in sector one. We need to analyse why and see where that went to.

“This weekend we were top ten punching above our weight, today just below.”

Hamilton credits revised preparation after strongest qualifying display of season

Teammate Alex Albon had an even more difficult session as he qualified P18 after failing to maximise his final run.

Albon believed both execution and timing played a role in his result, with Williams heading onto the circuit earlier than many of the other teams as conditions continued to improve.

Albon said: “It felt okay, I just didn’t really put it together, whether that’s me or deployment it just didn’t come together.”

“I don’t know why we went out so early compared to everyone else so we didn’t make use of the track evolution.”

Read more Formula 1 here:

• George Russell takes Canadian Grand Prix pole with Mercedes front row
• Russell takes Canada GP sprint victory as Antonelli disagrees
• Steward’s grant Lawson and Albon permission to race in Canadian Sprint
• Hamilton credits revised preparation after strongest qualifying display of season
• Russell hails Mercedes upgrade push after Canadian Sprint pole
• Racing Bulls fined €10,000 for technical breach
• Antonelli leads Mercedes one-two in incident-filled FP1 at Montreal

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Joe Briley

Joe Briley