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Carlos Sainz shared a straightforward reaction expressing his disappointment at getting knocked out of Q1 in the Spanish Grand Prix qualifying on Saturday. The driver will now start his first home race with Williams from P18 on Sunday.
Carlos Sainz is coming into the Spanish Grand Prix this weekend as one of the two home heroes on the current F1 grid, with the other one being Fernando Alonso. But the Spaniard has made it difficult for himself to have a decent result in Barcelona on Sunday, by getting knocked out in Q1 during qualifying.
After the conclusion of the first session in qualifying, Sainz's race engineer told him that he had qualified in P18, to which Sainz responded, simply saying:
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"Yeah, not good."
To make matters even worse for Sainz, his Williams teammate, Alex Albon made it through to the next round quite comfortably, and is looking quick enough for a potential Q3 spot, highlighting the pace of the FW47 around Barcelona. Only drivers slower than Sainz in the session were Yuki Tsunoda, who was struggling with a suspected floor issue, and Franco Colapinto, who lost drive coming out of the pits for his final run.
Before the start of the season, many fans expected Sainz to be quicker than Albon in equal machinery, an expectation that the 30-year-old has not been able to live up to so far this year. Albon has in fact been the quicker driver for the majority of the season so far, having beaten Sainz in all but one race this year.
Carlos Sainz happy with start to life at Williams
Carlos Sainz has shared that he is happy with the first eight races as a Williams driver, mainly due to the British team's pace upward trajectory. The Spaniard also mentioned that he is adapting well to the team, and isn't caring too much about the lack of points he has as compared to his teammate this season.
Speaking to Motorsports Week recently, Sainz shared his positive review of his time at Williams so far.
“I’m very happy with these first eight races. Happy with the results and the momentum the team is carrying. My adaptation process is going well, even though I don’t have all the points in the championship that I think my performance should reflect. Points is not something I’m caring so much about this year." said Sainz.
“I’m caring more about the speed I have with the car, the way I feel with the car, and how we can improve both the handling of the car and how we handle weekends, strategy, and execution." he added.
Sainz is taking part in his 11th Spanish GP as an F1 driver in 2025. The former Ferrari driver is yet to finish on the podium at his home race, with his best result at Catalonia coming in 2022, when he finished P4.
