Monaco GP: Frustrating qualifying for Williams Racing

By Williams Racing
May 25 2025

After an encouraging FP3 that saw both Atlassian Williams Racing cars in the top ten qualifying for the 2025 Monaco GP would turn out to be a frustrating session for both Alex Albon and Carlos Sainz. Alex and Carlos would finish in 10th and 11th but both drivers would have issues with getting their tyres to switch on at those moments when it mattered. It was very much a case of a lack of consistency that neither driver could find a solution for. Alex had been able to set the 3rd fastest time in Q2 but in Q3 the best he could achive was 0.5s off this time such was the tyre issues. As Carlos would say it was very much like a lottery. But 10th & 11th still puts both drivers in a reasonable position for Sunday's race but given the requirement for two pit stops it will all come down to what strategy the team adopts and what tyres they each driver has for the race.


Williams Racing Monaco GP Qualifying Review



	Alex Albon: "Frustrating day. I think my Q2 lap was half a second quicker than my Q3, so we need to understand why. We were in a really good rhythm from FP1 to FP3 and then in Qualifying it seemed that the tyres were not working properly throughout, and they were inconsistent. With that Q2 lap I thought we finally got it to work then we lost grip again in Q3. Even though it’s a two-stop it’s still going to be a managed race to some extent so it will be interesting."

	Carlos Sainz: "My weekend has been challenging from the beginning, never finding a sweet spot with the car. Despite that, I had enough pace to go into Q3 but for some reason the Soft tyre on our car felt a bit like a lottery and in Q2 we clearly didn’t switch it on, which meant we had no grip at all. It’s frustrating, but I think that tomorrow we might have an interesting race with the mandatory two-stops. We’ll try to make the most out of it."

	James Vowles Team Principal: "Today was all about tyres. We didn’t have them working the right way with Carlos in Q2 or with Alex at the end of Q3. There is lots to learn and understand but that won’t apply tomorrow. The main element now is working on how we move forward with the new two-stop regulations in the race and I’m confident the car is still quick."

Circuit de Monaco, Monaco			Lap Length: 3.337km

Pos	Driver	Team	Q1	Q2	Q3

10	A Albon	Williams Racing	1:11.629	1:10.732	1:11.213
11	C Sainz	Williams Racing	1:11.707	1:11.362	-