Australian GP: Frustrating qualifying for Williams Racing

Team Summary:
The opening eighteen minute period for qualifying for the 2022 Australian Grand Prix would commence with a rush of drivers coming out all on the soft tyre, including both Williams cars. As the times came in Leclerc would set a 1m:19.391 ahead of Norris and Tsunoda. Sainz would go quickest with a 1m:19.179 now followed by Perez and Leclerc, Verstappen was fourth. Bottas was now fifth while Verstappen went second and Leclerc fastest with a 1m:18.881. Both Aston Martins were still in their garages being repaired after their FP3 crashes.

Verstappen would set a 1m:18.580 to be quickest now from Perez, Leclerc, Sainz, Alonso, Bottas, Norris, Ocon, Ricciardo, and Russell tenth. The Williams pair were currently 13th and 18th. But the session would be Red Flagged when their would be an accident involving Nicholas and Stroll with the pair falling over each other. With the restart the top seven would remain in their pits but below that it was all action. With the end of the period it was Verstappen quickest from Perez, Leclerc, Sainz, Alonso, Bottas, Norris, Hamilton, Russell, and Gasly tenth. Neither Williams driver would make it past Q1 finishing in 16th and 19th. But Alex would be on the receiving end of a three place grid penalty.

The second period would see the top ten finish with Perez quickest with a 1m:18.340 followed by Sainz, Leclerc, Verstappen, Alonso, Norris, Russell, Hamilton, Ricciardo and Ocon tenth. The final period would see Alonso crash which would bring out the Red Flag. With the restart the period would end with Leclerc on pole from Verstappen, Perez, Norris, Hamilton, Russell, Ricciardo, Ocon, Sainz and Alonso tenth without setting a time. A frustrating qualifying for Williams Racing with one crashed car and the other one with an issue such that it had to stop on the track side. Either way both Williams cars will start from close to the rear of the grid so Sundays race is going to be a tough one.

Alex Albon:
Alex would take to the track for his first run using the soft tyre. A 1m:21.152 from Alex would see him briefly fastest. He would drop to fourth then sixth and tenth. He would improve with a 1m:20.178 to be eighth. He would drop to 11th and would pit after a four lap run. Currently 13th and Alex would return for second soft tyre run. He would drop to 16th when he pitted with the Red Flag. He would return but would fail to improve remaining 16th. But it would go wrong for Alex when he was told by his engineer to stop his car seeing him pull over to the side of the track. It was yet to be confirmed how Alex's three place grid penalty from Saudi Arabia will place him on Sunday's grid but he certainly will be close to the back row.

Nicholas Latifi:
Nicholas would follow Alex out also using the soft tyre for his first run. Nicholas would have an off but kept it off the wall and was able to set a 1m:21.372 to be 16th. He would also pit after a four lap run. After his spin it was surprising that he was able to get a time in. In the pit he would drop to 18th as he returned for a second run. He would back out of his flying lap remaining 18th. But Nicholas would be involved in an on track coming together with Stroll in what seemed like a misunderstanding as Nicholas allowed Stroll past only to have the Aston Martin slow and turn slightly right as Nicholas went to go past to get ahead of the slowing Aston Martin. They would make contact seeing both cars crash heavily into the barriers.

It seemed that Nicholas slowed to let Stroll past and then Stroll then slowed and there was a gap that Nicholas most likely went Stroll is going too slow so I will repass him and then Stroll turns right as the Williams passes him. And there we have a crash. In a post qualifying interview Nicholas would comment: "For me its quite clear ... just turned into me ... I let him through as I was told that he was pushing to open a lap and I saw that he had aborted the lap and I wanted to carry on with my own preparation lap so I went back by him as there was a big gap and once I got past him for whatever reason he decided to turn so ..."