In Shanghai, Alex Albon took Williams to the final qualifying session for the second time in a row, where he set the tenth fastest time. His teammate Carlos Sainz qualified fifteenth and said that after Saturday's sprint, in which he was 13th, the team made significant adjustments to the set-up for Sunday's race.
Alex Albon (10th): “Such tight results! According to our calculations, the entire middle group should have fit into one tenth. The first and second parts of qualifying were almost identical due to the minimal gaps.
I am very happy to have done a good qualifying and done clean laps. There were a lot of gusts of wind during the session – it is easy to make mistakes in those conditions, but I was consistent, which is not easy on this track. It is easy to overdo it in Shanghai and the tyres are very sensitive. I think I found a good rhythm.
“We adjusted the settings today, but there is still a lot to do. I am happy to reach the final, but tomorrow will be a tough race.”
Carlos Sainz (15th): “In qualifying, the same problems were repeated. As soon as I started to push, I lost the feeling of the car in some corners and could not improve the time. I tried to get the maximum, but the reality is that I did not succeed, especially in the third sector. I know that I will find a way to approach the car, but it is important to shorten the adaptation process as much as possible.
“We've made a big set-up change for tomorrow's race, so hopefully that will put us in better shape than we were this morning. Tyre granulation will be key again, so we'll see what we can achieve.”
Source