Mexican GP: Qualifying goes wrong for Williams Racing


By Andrew Hooper
October 30 2022

After an encouraging final Saturday practice for the 2022 Mexican GP with Alex Albon finishing in tenth the qualifying session would see a session where unexpectedly things would go wrong for the team with both drivers suddenly lacking pace and more importantly grip. The session would see Alex and Nicholas Latifi finish 19th and 20th. Alex's final run was also spoilt by moment where he would end up going off the track ruining his last flying lap. For Nicholas he would comment that he felt the grip was just no there. With penalties Alex and Nicholas will start the race from 17th and 18th but it is going to be a tough race starting so  far back.

 
 Williams Racing Mexican GP Qualifying
 
Latifi
 

Team Summary:
After an encouraging final Saturday practice for Alex Albon the Williams Racing Team would see qualifying for the 2022 Mexican Grand Prix commence and both Williams cars were out very early joining other cars all on the soft tyre. As times came in it was Schumacher fastest but with a slow 1m:32.819 as more drivers started to come out. Schumacher would set a 1m:21.024 to be quickest from Magnussen, Vettel, Nicholas and Stroll. But we would have a Williams go quickest with a 1m:20.859 but the car would drop to third as Perez went quickest with a time of 1m:20.408 but Leclerc would move ahead with a 1m:19.505. The Williams pair were currently fifth and ninth. This would change as Verstappen went quickest with a time of 1m:19.22 followed by Leclerc and now Hamilton.

Sainz was now fourth followed by Russell, Ocon, Alonso, Norris and Perez. But Bottas was now third as we saw the Williams pair way down the times in 17th and 20th. Sainz was now fifth followed by Russell, Ocon, Alonso, Norris, and Perez tenth as drivers started to return for their second runs while both Williams were back in their pits with four minutes remaining. But both would return for a further soft tyre run. They would be joined by quite a few drivers as the track continued to improve. The Williams pair were currently 18th and 20th with a minute remaining so it would all come down to the final laps. Tsunoda was now eighth but Norris would also improve to be seventh.

 
Albon
 
The top ten would end up been Hamilton who had set a , Verstappen Leclerc, Bottas, Sainz, Russell, Perez, Norris, Tsunoda and Ocon tenth. But for Williams Racing both cars were out of qualifying 19th and 20th. But they were joined by both Aston Martin's. With the final periods of qualifying completed it would be Verstappen who would secure pole with a time of 1m:17.775. He would be followed by Russell, Hamilton, Perez, Sainz, Bottas, Leclerc, Norris, Alonso and Ocon tenth. For the Williams team it would seem that the change in conditions with the track warmer than in FP3 had really caught them out
 
Latifi
 

Alex Albon:
Alex would follow his team-mate out also using the soft tyre. He would set a 1m:29.644 which was preparation lap and his next lap was a 1m:20.859 to see him quickest. But he would drop to seventh and the way down to 17th as he pitted after a six lap run. He would return for another new soft tyre run as he dropped to 19th and with the end of the session this is where he would finish. It was later shown that Alex had a moment at Turn 8 which would see him leave the track narrowly missing the barrier but totally ruining his last lap and last chance of moving into Q2.

Nicholas Latifi:
Nicholas would come out very early in the qualifying running the soft tyre. Nicholas would set a 1m:32.358 on his preparation lap. He would improve with a 1m:21.223 to be ninth dropping to tenth. This would become 20th as he pitted after a six lap run. Nicholas would return on a new set of soft tyres. He would only manage a 1m:21.167 to be 20th. Nicholas would say that the grip was just not there.
 

Albon