REPORT: Sprint and Quali Complete in Shanghai

A Saturday full of challenges in Shanghai saw Alex Albon secure a P10 start for the 2025 Chinese Grand Prix, while Carlos Sainz will line up in P15. Earlier in the day, the team endured a tricky Sprint full of tyre management, with Alex finishing P11, while Sainz opted for learnings by pitting and finishing P17.

Lining up ninth, Alex dropped a couple of positions on the opening tour, but would hold that position to the flag. The Sprint proved to be a tyre management challenge, with almost every driver struggling for grip as the race progressed.

Starting P13, Carlos was caught in traffic early on. Like Alex, he struggled with graining, limiting his ability to make progress. As the race unfolded, Pierre Gasly made a move stick on our Spaniard and with points almost certainly out of the question, Carlos pitted to trial a different setup and gather data.

He dropped to the back of the field, but caught up to the pack on the final tour and made the most of a three-way tangle between Jack Doohan, Gabriel Bortoleto and Nico Hulkenberg to finish P17.

Our duo comfortably negotiated Q1, with Alex posting a 1:31.503 and Carlos recording a 1:31.628 for both FW47s to be three-tenths clear of the drop zone.

Q2 was tight, with not much to separate the entire midfield. Carlos’ 1:31.840 placed him P15 for Sunday, while Alex continued his 100% Q3 record in 2025 (including Sprint Quali) with a final run of 1:31.595.

His 1:31.706 on used soft tyres secured 10th place for the race in Q3, putting him in the mix as we head into a race of unknowns with no running so far on the hard tyres.

"Sprint weekends are always challenging and this one is no different," James Vowles shared.

"We didn’t have the car in the right place this morning and in the Sprint Race, we suffered more graining than near enough all the cars around us and had to try our best to manage it.

"We made some quite significant set-up changes for both drivers for Qualifying and for the Grand Prix, which should put us in a better position.

"As we said before the season started, the field is so tight, and just milliseconds really makes a difference between making it to Q3 or being on the outside of it. With Carlos, we can absolutely see improvement; in reality it was just one corner that differentiated him from Alex, but it bodes well for the race tomorrow."

Alex added: "It’s so close out there! I think we had the whole of the midfield spread by a tenth by our calculations.

"Q1 and Q2 were honestly almost the same because the margins were so close. I’m very happy to have executed well and get clean laps on the board.

"The wind was gusting quite a lot during that session and it’s easy to make mistakes in those conditions, but I think I was consistent out there.

"It’s difficult to do that on a tricky track like this, it’s easy to overdrive and the tyres are so sensitive. It felt like I was in a good rhythm.

"We made some set-up changes today but there’s still a lot to do. I’m happy to get through but it’s going to be a tough race tomorrow."

Carlos concluded our reaction by commenting: "Still struggling with the same issues during Qualifying. As soon as I begin to push, I lose the feeling with the car in certain corners and struggle to improve the total lap time.

"I’m trying to make the most of it, but the reality is that I am unfortunately not there yet, especially in the last sector.

"I know I’ll end up getting there with the car, it’s now a matter of shortening the process as much as possible. Regarding tomorrow’s race, we’ve made some big set-up changes to the car and hopefully we will be in better shape than this morning. Graining will again be key, so let’s see what we can achieve."