Carlos Sainz happy with Williams progress after outqualifying Alexander Albon again

The Formula 1 Saudi Arabian Grand Prix presents an intriguing race for Williams, with one driver planning to err on the side of caution and the other looking to rein in his own perceived over-confidence.

Carlos Sainz will start a season-best sixth on the grid at the Jeddah Corniche Circuit on Sunday, while team-mate Alexander Albon will set off down in 11th having just missed out on joining the Spaniard in Q3.

It is the third time in five races that Sainz has made it into the qualifying top 10, but last weekend in Bahrain he retired after Yuki Tsunoda slid into him in his Red Bull and damaged the sidepod of the FW47.

“It’s definitely been another good weekend so far. Right from the start of FP1, [it’s been] feeling a step better and going in the right direction with the set-up and driving,” said Sainz.

“I’m still having to think a lot to pull some good laps together but I’m definitely feeling more at home and more comfortable with things. I’m happy and proud… with the progress that we’re making and the direction we’re following.

“(It is the) second weekend in a row that we must be quite close to the limit of the car, given that we managed to beat a Red Bull and a Ferrari and obviously a McLaren with a crash (Lando Norris).

“So yeah, let’s keep going in that direction, keep following the same philosophy, one step at a time and it will come… it’s coming little by little.”

Before his incident with Tsunoda in Bahrain, Sainz had found himself tussling with Tsunoda’s Red Bull team-mate Max Verstappen as well as his own replacement at Ferrari, Lewis Hamilton. Sainz then gradually fell down the pack having started eighth.

He bettered his Bahrain qualifying performance in Saudi Arabia but admits he may take a different approach to the race as he looks to add to the solitary point he has accrued so far this season.

“Honestly, after Friday I saw a very big difference in race pace between the top cars and the midfield,” he added.

“It seems like the top cars managed to overheat the tyres a lot less than the midfield. So I expect a very difficult race tomorrow to keep… two or three clearly quicker cars behind me. 

“I need to think about it a bit. I think I’ll go tonight and think about whether I’m going to put up a good fight with them like I did in Bahrain… challenge them and make myself as wide as possible… or pick my fights better in the heat of the battle.

“It will be tough to stay disciplined, but my feeling is that tomorrow is probably a better day to live to fight another day and give myself a good chance of finishing in the points.

“This is a very confidence-driven circuit. You need a lot of confidence to hustle the car around the walls at the speeds that we’re going, and you need to trust the car. I feel like this weekend I’m definitely a step closer to being comfortable, given that it’s a very high confidence track.”

Ironically, high confidence was the reason Sainz’s team-mate Albon gave for being eliminated in Q2, losing out to Hamilton by 0.007 seconds.

The result means Albon starts behind Sainz for the second time in a week and was left questioning the team’s run strategy.

“I think the timing of our Q2 run was questionable. I think we went out when no one else did. This track is like Monza, you need the circulation,” he said.

“If cars run in-laps, out-laps, it doesn’t really matter. There’s a circulation on the track. It pulls you around quite nicely, especially in sector 2 and sector 3.

“I think I was slowest in sector 3 on my last lap in Q2 because we didn’t have a tow. We need to review that… maybe we were too confident in our own pace to get into Q3, I don’t know.

“It’s frustrating because there’s obviously two weekends in a row where it feels like we should be in the points [and] we should be in the top 10 of Q3 quite confidently. But we’ve missed it for whatever reason.”