Abu Dhabi GP: Tough qualifying for Williams Racing


By Andrew Hooper
November 19 2022

Qualifying for the 2022 Abu Dhabi GP certainly turned out to be a tough and frustrating one for Williams Racing with their drivers only managing 19th and 20th on the grid. For Alex Albon after a positive FP3 there was the expectation that Q2 or even Q3 were a possibility but he was to struggle with tyre issues that hampered his pace. For Nicholas Latifi he would finish 20th and last which must be particularly frustrating as it was his last F1 qualifying. Sunday's race might see the team produce a better race as their race pace was quite positive but reghardless it will be difficult starting from the back.

 
 Williams Racing Abu Dhabi GP Qualifying
 
Latifi
 

Team Summary:
After a mixed final practice session the Williams Racing Team would commence the final qualifying session of 2022 for the Abu Dhabi Grand prix. There would be a rush of drivers coming out early including both Williams cars. We would have a Williams briefly quickest but after more times came in it would be Tsunoda fastest with a 1m:26.135. The Williams pair were currently seventh and eighth. Schumacher was second followed by Stroll and Vettel. The rest of the field would be out now so the top times were going to change quite quickly. Leclerc would go fastest with a 1m:25.211 only to see Perez move ahead with a 1m:24.820.

The Williams pair were now 10th and 11th as we had Norris third followed by Ricciardo. But next we would have Verstappen quickest with a time of 1m:24.754. The Williams drivers would drop down to now be 17th and 18th as Russell went fourth. Sainz was now third followed by Leclerc, Russell, Norris, Hamilton, Ocon, Ricciardo and Tsunoda tenth. Currently the Williams drivers were now 19th and 20th with just under five minutes of the session remaining. Both Williams drivers would return for their final runs joined by the whole field except for the Ferrari's. With their final runs their times would only see them manage 19th and 20th a big disappointment for Williams. With the end of the period it would be Verstappen quickest from Perez, Sainz, Leclerc, Norris, Vettel, Russell, Hamilton, Zhou and Tsunoda tenth. The gap between the Williams pair was the smallest of fractions 0.026s so at least both drivers achieved very similar performances.

 
Albon
 
The second period of qualifying would see Perez leading from Leclerc, Sainz, Verstappen, Hamilton, Norris, Russell, Vettel, Ocon and Ricciardo tenth. So the drivers not making the cut were Alonso 11th followed by Tsunoda, Schumacher, Stroll, Zhou, Magnussen, Gasly, Bottas, Alex and Nicholas last. The final period would finish with Verstappen on pole from Perez, Leclerc, Sainz, Hamilton, Russell, Norris, Ocon, Vettel and Ricciardo tenth. For Williams a back of the grid start is going to be tough to see them achieve a positive result in Sunday's race.
 
Latifi
 

Alex Albon:
After finishing tenth in his qualifying simulations Q3 was a possibility for Alex. Alex would take to the track very early joining his team-mate. Alex would manage only a 1m:216.507 to only be seventh one place ahead of his team-mate. He would drop to 17th but with a 1m:26.440 he would improve only to see his time would be deleted and he would drop to 19th pitting after a six lap run. Alex would return on another set of soft tyres and would be able to only manage a 1m:26.028 to be only 18th. This would become 19th and this is where he would finish qualifying. Alex would comment: "For these conditions, we need a really fast out-lap. The traffic in Qualifying was huge. I apologise to the others but I had to race on the out-lap to get my tyres in the best conditions but it wasn't enough. I was sliding a lot!"

Nicholas Latifi:
Nicholas would be first out for a soft tyre run. Nicholas would set a 1m:26.841 to go briefly quickest but he would drop to eighth and would pit after a three lap run. He would return on a new set of soft tyres. He would improve with a 1m:26.746 but was now 19th and effectively slowest. He would finally drop to be 20th and would return for another run. Nicholas would set a 1m:26.054 to be 14th dropping to 17th. This would become 20th and last as the session ended. Not the way he was hoping to finish.
 

Albon