Carlos Sainz showed the pace of the Williams 2025 machinery in qualifying for Imola GP, going fastest in Q2 and making his way safely into the top ten. However, the Spaniard rued what he felt could’ve been a top five start.
Sainz’ season start at Williams didn’t get off to the start many had hoped. For the opening rounds, he found himself significantly off the pace of his teammate, Alex Albon, and was consistently being outperformed.
However, the Spaniard remained positive regarding the possibilities with the team, putting any problems down to growing pains of joining a new team.
Strong pace
Now it seems that is exactly all it was. Sainz had been the faster of the Williams all weekend, getting himself in the top three in practice one, and topping the timing sheets with an astounding Q2 run. Unfortunately, he was unable to recreate the lap in Q3, finding himself sixth, just out of the top five as he hoped.
He admitted he was happy with the pace, but slightly disappointed. “Yeah, very pleased today. Honestly, I felt at one with the car in a very high confidence track. I managed to do some very strong laps. Unfortunately, our strongest lap didn’t come in Q3. We took a bit of a risk by going late at the end of Q3, and we ran out of time. Which meant we had to do a really fast out lap.”
In the end, Sainz believed that he had an extra 3 tenths of speed than the lap times he managed showed. He said, “We had to fight cars on the out lap. A 15.1, 15.0 I think was our potential today with the car. We had to settle with a 15.4. Doesn’t really matter because a 15.1, 15.0 would have put us in front of only one more car.”
Weekend expectations
The weekend is not over for Sainz, and starting sixth, there is still so much to gain. When the Spaniard was asked on his expectations of the race pace in the FW47, he remained positive.
He said, “Well, we just know that we have to keep all the midfield cars under control tomorrow. And see whether we can fight anyone at the front. Fernando will be very tough to beat. We know how strong he is in the race. But he’s used his mediums, as I said. And it’s not a clear one or two stop.”
Imola is a notoriously hard track to overtake, so the track position will benefit both Williams drivers, which see a top ten start for the duo.
