REPORT: Best Qualifying of 2024 banked in Baku

Williams Racing had both cars reach Q3 for the first time in 2024 after a strong Saturday for the team in Azerbaijan.

The signs of a promising afternoon were first displayed in FP3, where, after a quiet start, Alex and Franco ended the hour in P8 and P9.

It wasn’t to be a one-off appearance in the top 10, as Qualifying arrived and our duo sailed through the first elimination phase with Albono in P2 and Franco in P8.

As Q2 began, Alex’s time of 1:42.840 was good enough for P10 whilst Franco set a 1:42.473 to place him P6 and ensure we had both cars in Q3 for the first time this season.

In doing so, Franco became the first driver from Argentina to qualify inside the top ten since Carlos Reutemann did so for Williams at the 1982 Brazilian GP.

After exiting a busy pit lane at the start of Q3, both Alex and Franco set their benchmark times on used soft tyres, and were P8 and P9.

They returned to the garage for fresh rubber, but in a quick turnaround, Alex headed back to the circuit with a cooling fan still attached to his airbox.

Our Thai racer was able to remove this himself at the pit exit, however couldn’t make it back around in time to set a lap.

Franco would improve on his initial time to leap above his teammate and make the fifth row of the grid on race day an all-Williams affair.

"To achieve Q3 in only my second Qualifying session in F1 is an amazing feeling for me and the team," Franco shared.

"I was not expecting to go into Q3 as I was just going session by session building up throughout.

"The car has been on point so far this weekend and I’ve been getting more comfortable with the car and learning a new track. I think we maximised almost every run we did today.

"We had a difficult start yesterday, but we’ve done a great job to turn it around. It was important to build my confidence up after the crash in FP1 especially at a street track.

"My mistake in FP1 meant I couldn’t do a long run which could hurt me tomorrow, but I think we can do our prep tonight and understand where I can improve.

"I’m proud of what we’re already achieving together as this is only the start with plenty of races left. Let’s see what we can do tomorrow."

Alex continued our reaction by adding: "We’ve had three Q3’s in a row now which is a positive, and getting both cars through to Q3 is good.

"The car is performing well and the upgrade is working. Funnily enough, I’m actually not that happy with the car this weekend but that’s a positive sign as it shows there’s even more to come and we are still good on race pace.

"With the issue with the fan in Q3, these things happen. Nobody did it on purpose and the team will review what happened, but realistically I was only going to gain one, maybe two positions if everything went perfectly and we can still fight from the top ten tomorrow."

Sven Smeets, Sporting Director, concluded our Saturday round-up by commenting: "The team did a great job overnight to find more performance for today because after FP3 this morning both drivers were happier with the balance of the car than yesterday.

"For Qualifying the cloud cover disappeared and track temperature creeped up but with clean and well executed runs both drivers proceeded into Q2. We knew it was going to be harder to get into Q3 but again both drivers had great last laps and made it through.

"In Q3 we had to settle for P9 and P10 after an incident prohibited Alex to complete his final push lap and Franco made some small mistakes which prevented him from taking P8 from [Fernando] Alonso.

"Nevertheless, the team and the drivers can look back on a solid Qualifying and both are in a good position to fight for points tomorrow."