Saturday, 13 June 2026:
- Free Practice 3: P15, 1:17.730, 19 laps
- Qualifying: P16, 1:17”.827, 15 laps

• Carlos Sainz set the sixteenth fastest time in the Qualifying session of the Barcelona-Catalunya GP, a modest but hard-fought reward with laps in which he made the most of his FW48, which is struggling in this track due to the nature of the corners of the Catalan circuit.
• The Williams race driver used up all his new sets of Soft tyres in Q1, where he put together a 1:16.881 that allowed him to stay out of the elimination zone and make it to Q2 ahead of cars that theoretically were faster than his on one-lap pace.
• The lack of fresh rubber cost him in Q2, where his time was one second slower than in the previous session: 1:17.827.
• Points look really expensive for tomorrow, but Carlos doesn’t give up. He is confident that he will have a chance thanks to the challenging strategy that is expected for the race, the driver mistakes and possible mechanical retirements.

QUOTES:
“We maximised everything we had today and reached our target of getting into Q2, which is an honest reflection of where we are at this track. We used all our new tyres in Q1 which left us with not much more to extract in Q2, so improving P16 was not possible".

“We’ll be going into tomorrow with a fresh mindset as we know anything can happen here. On pure pace, points aren’t on the table, but this track is hard on everyone’s machinery and strategy can make a big difference. We'll be ready to take any opportunity that comes. It's been a tricky weekend so far, but feeling the support of the Spanish fans has been incredible. I'll give them everything I have tomorrow".

COMING UP:
Sunday, 14 June 2026:
- Race: 15:00 local time (15:00 CEST)