Report: Alex Albon records our first Q3 appearance of the season

Williams Racing will start from inside the top 10 at the 2023 Australian Grand Prix after Alex Albon secured a memorable P8 on the grid in Melbourne.

AA23 was quick through all three qualifying sessions, consistently lighting up the timing screens with green-purple-green sectors. Having finished Q1 in P8, Alex finished Q2 in P10 and pipped Esteban Ocon by just 0.007s to make it through to the final stage.

Across the other side of the garage, Logan Sargeant missed out on a Q2 berth by just 0.086s, ultimately qualifying P18. The American had spun at the penultimate corner on his first push lap but was able to set two more representative times, but not enough to get through.

“Today is pretty special,” a jubilant Alex explained as he reflected on Saturday.

“We optimised everything we had with a very good car, so I’m feeling really happy. We were struggling in the practice sessions to get the tyres to work but we went into qualifying and executed our plan which paid off, the tyres worked, and everything else fell into place.

“Looking at the progress the team has made in 12 months, knowing we’re able to fight for points each weekend, myself and the team live for that and motivation is high. We have a job to do tomorrow but we’re in the fight.”

Logan was left to rue small mistakes in quali but is looking forward to the race ahead.

“It wasn’t the smoothest of qualifying sessions and I did struggle to find those last couple of tenths,” he said, adding: “I felt like I was building up nicely and the session was coming to me - I was getting quicker and quicker – and was on a definite good enough lap for Q2 there at the end and just made a mistake in sector 3.

“We’ll start to see results improve when I put everything together. We haven’t had many laps this weekend with the electrical issues in FP1 and missing out on FP2 because of that, but we were capable of Q2 today.

“It’s hard to tell what car we have for tomorrow as we haven’t done any consecutive laps but generally, we have a pretty quick car in race trim, especially on the straights, so we know we can fight the people around us.

“Tomorrow is about being procedurally perfect, having a good start, good race pace and we’ll look to make some moves.”

Dave Robson, Head of Vehicle Performance, watched all the action unfold from the pit wall and reflected on the day by saying: “Alex had an excellent qualifying session today. He was able to keep out of traffic and prepare his tyres well and consistently.

“As a result, each lap he did was strong, and he was able to build his confidence and finish the session in a good position

“Once again, the sessions were tight with several teams completing similar lap times. This was good for Alex as he was able to just beat Gasly and Hulkenberg to take a very promising P8 on the grid.

“Conversely for Logan, a small mistake at the end of his final lap in Q1 cost him a place in Q2. Given that he lost valuable time in the car yesterday, his pace today was very good, and he can look forward to a positive race tomorrow.”

Earlier in the day, there had been a thrilling 1-2 finish for our Driver Academy as Franco Colapinto delivered a spectacular victory, leading Zak O’Sullivan home in the Formula 3 Sprint.

However, our young Argentinian later had his result taken away after all three MP Motorsport cars were disqualified for a technical infringement, meaning Zak inherited the victory, his very first in F3.