His team mate Alex Albon, who has only gone out in Q2 on three occasions this season, similarly suffered due to dirty air and traffic – as he referred to Ollie Bearman’s Haas as “dirty” over the radio, alleging that they were “purposefully slow in Sector 3”.
It had been a tough weekend for Albon even before Qualifying began, having sat out of FP1 to allow Victor Martins to make his F1 debut and subsequently experiencing a braking issue that limited him to just five laps in FP3.
He explained: “It’s a shame to miss out on Q3 but at the same time I’m really happy – that’s the first time I’ve been through to Q2 [in Spain] with the Williams, and almost in Q3 so it shows all of us that we’re going in the right direction. We still have some work to do.”
Reflecting on his radio message, Albon added: “It’s fine margins. Honestly, Ollie’s not in the way, I don’t have to brake and I’m not getting disturbed by the object of his car, let’s say. We just carry so much dirty air, and the dirty air was a bit too dirty for Sector 3 and I missed out, but that’s how it is.”