Sainz reveals what caused shock third Q1 exit in a row during Austrian GP Qualifying

Williams driver Carlos Sainz has explained how floor damage and brake problems contributed to his surprise Q1 exit during Qualifying for the Austrian Grand Prix.

Sainz, who also fell at the first Qualifying hurdle in Spain and Canada, struggled to make an impact when Saturday’s grid-deciding session got under way at the Red Bull Ring.

Having wound up 19th, ahead of only Kick Sauber’s Nico Hulkenberg, the Spaniard expressed major concerns to his engineer over the radio as he returned to the pit lane.

“There’s damage in the car, for sure,” Sainz reported. “The car is undriveable. When I say undriveable, it’s pulling under braking, no load in high-speed. Undriveable.”

When he arrived in the media pen to speak to the world’s television broadcasters, Sainz confirmed that Williams had subsequently spotted car damage – as well as other costly issues.

“We’ve just seen that we had quite a bit of damage on the floor, so we were lacking quite a lot of downforce,” he said. “We also had an issue with the brakes from the start of Quali, so too many things going to on to actually push around a high-confidence track like this.”

Asked about what might be possible in the race, Sainz added: “[It’s been] a very weird weekend. We’ve been very quick in the long runs with the harder tyres, and then on soft tyres we never seem to be competitive. We’ll have to have a look why.”

It was a more encouraging session for Sainz’s team mate, Alex Albon, who caught the eye in Q1 and went on to qualify 12th – albeit with car damage also impacting his efforts.

“Honestly, I’m really happy,” he said, despite just missing out on Q3. “We damaged the floor in Q1 in the middle of my quick lap.

"I ran wide through Turn 7 and we were fixing the rear with tape. Then we had that red flag, which was maybe the worst-timed red flag that could be there.

“We ended up doing our last Q2 lap on used tyres and a damaged floor and we managed 12th, so I’m really happy.”

Previewing Sunday’s action, the Thai-British racer commented: “We actually had good race pace [in practice]. I think, honestly, most probably in line with where we qualified, maybe a little bit faster than that still.

“We’ve got some good tyre options, I think we saved a couple more mediums than other teams, so let’s see how it goes.”

Williams head into the race holding a comfortable fifth position in the Teams’ Championship standings on 55 points, 27 clear of Haas and Racing Bulls.