Yahoo Autos Early Rain-Soaked Qualifying Affects Williams the Hardest, Alex Albon Withdraws Ahead of Grand Prix of Brazil
With a torrential downpour Saturday afternoon, F1 moved qualifying for the Grand Prix of Brazil to Sunday morning and, with the possibility of rain later in the day, moved up the start time for the Grand Prix by an hour and a half. This was only the sixth time in series history that qualifying for a grand prix took place on Sunday and, to the groans of jetlagged drivers, was set for 7:30 AM local time.
Qualifying started in heavy rain, which moved to internment during Q2 and light during Q3, causing the surviving teams and drivers each round to make quick choices as the situation shifted.
Williams Racing was the most affected by the weather, with Franco Colapinto bringing out the red flag in Q1 after setting a first-lap time good enough to advance to the next round, even if he couldn't make a run past it. When the first red flag lifted and rain lightened, the field found speed, pushing Colapinto down to an 18th starting position for Sunday's Grand Prix.
With a little more than four hours between Colapinto's crash and the start of the race, the Williams team was able to make repairs to damaged FW45; unfortunately for his teammate Alex Albon, there would not be enough time.
Albon was on track for his best starting position in a grand prix when, with under five minutes remaining in Q3, he suffered a hard hit to the wall. With more damage and less time, Williams could not fix Albon's car in time for the Thai-British driver to make the start of the Grand Prix. When Albon crashed, he was trying to improve on his first Q3 lap time of 1:24.657, which was good enough to place him on the front row. As other driver's times improved, Albon's starting position would fall to seventh before Williams withdrew him from the event.
"It's a heartbreaking day for the team, Williams' Team Principal said in a statement. "We're here to go racing, and nobody wants to be in that situation. The most important point is that all the drivers who had incidents in qualifying are okay, including Alex and Franco. Despite the best efforts of our hard-working, talented, and resilient team, there simply was not enough time to repair Alex's car in time for the Grand Prix.
It's a bitter pill to swallow at the end of a tough triple-header, especially when both drivers showed tremendous pace this morning. We will focus on maximizing this afternoon with Franco and putting on a show for the incredible fans here in Brazil."
While Williams and Albon were the only ones forced to withdraw, the rain-soaked qualifying session, filled with five red flags, was hard on everyone. Lewis Hamilton and Nico Hulkenberg were unable to make it out of Q1. Hamilton is a favorite at the Brazillian track, and Hulkenberg had the opportunity to extend that bizarre statistic of only German-born polesitters on Sunday qualifying from five to six.
Q2 saw the end of the Red Bulls of Sergio Perez and Max Verstappen's qualifying effort and the Ferrari of Carlos Sainz. The latter crashed midway through the session before a second stoppage by Lance Stroll left the Red Bull stranded with no chance to improve. Perez will start 13th, Verstappen 12th and Sainz 14th.
The McLarens were mainly unaffected as Lando Norris secured the pole in Q3 over Mercedes George Russell and VCARB's Yuki Tsunoda. Oscar Piastri will start further back in eighth position.
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