Carlos Sainz handles the limitations of his car in Austin Qualifying

Saturday, 24 October 2026:

- Free Practice 3: P20, 1:37.711, 21 laps

- Qualifying: P19, 1:36.770, 9 laps

• Carlos Sainz set the nineteenth fastest time in the Qualifying session of the United States GP, although he is set to start the race from seventeenth because other drivers are carrying grid penalties.
• The Williams race driver opted to use three sets of Soft tyres in Q1, in pursuit of a Q2 slot which seemed difficult to grasp seeing the results of the practice sessions.
• The Spanish driver set a 1:37.728 in his first lap and then improved to 1:36.770 in his second one. In his third and final one, he was quicker in the first two sectors, but a mistake in the last one impeded him from improving any further.

QUOTES:

“It’s been a tough weekend and probably more difficult than we expected; however, ahead of qualifying, we made some setup changes that actually made the car feel better. My last lap was coming together very well, with very strong first and second sectors, but I made a mistake into turn 15 which potentially cost us some positions. In any case, tomorrow’s race will be tough for us as I don’t expect our pace to be enough to fight our way up the order. However, there are more things to learn from the car and I’m looking forward to executing our best race possible and see where that takes us".

COMING UP:

Sunday, 25 October 2026:

- Race: 15:00 local time (21:00 CET)