REPORT: The FW47 Shines in Saudi

Carlos Sainz equalled our best Qualifying performance of 2025 and our best ever Saudi Arabian Grand Prix grid slot as he took P6 under the night sky in Jeddah.

Atlassian Williams Racing have now reached Q3 at all five rounds of the season as the FW47 continues to show its speed, ending Quali with Carlos' 1:28.164.

Two Williams cars were close to making the top-10 shootout, too, with Alex Albon missing out by just 0.007s this time around.

Nonetheless, Alex managed to be the best of those who didn't reach Q3 and will line up in P11 for Sunday's race with his 1:28.109 Q2 lap.

The result is the culmination of an encouraging time around the Jeddah Corniche Circuit in Free Practice. Carbono ended all three sessions inside the top 10, with FP3 seeing the duo in P6 and P7 after completing 31 laps.

Alex was the Williams representative who took to the track first throughout Qualifying, and he was the quicker driver at the start of Q1. Carlos was three-tenths off his teammate and opted for a push-cool-push to improve.

Q1's second runs left Alex in P6 and Carlos in P8, easily reaching Q2 where the two drivers played the team game by helping with a slipstream down the long start-finish straight.

Opting to run away from the traffic, Alex picked up the tow from Carlos on his first Q2 attempt. Though he ultimately didn't progress, the car's pace suggests he won't be far behind Carlos in the points-paying positions in the race.

A red flag in Q3 halted our Smooth Operator's efforts, but even with the pressure on, Carlos jumped up from P9 to P6 to record his best Qualifying result for Williams so far.

"Wow, great lap," said James Vowles as Carlos returned to the pit lane.

"Really well done, Carlos. Really well executed. Good management with Verstappen at the end there.

"Great stuff and we should have a good car for tomorrow."

"Thank you, JV," replied Carlos. "Let's do tomorrow what we didn't do in Bahrain."

James Vowles, Team Principal, reflected on Qualifying by saying: "A great result for Carlos. Really good to see how he progressed session on session. He’s really in control of what he’s doing and working well with the team to get the right run plan and executed it perfectly.

"With Alex, we hold a responsibility towards the result. We were a little bit too early and gave him a clean lap but cost him the opportunity to get to Q3. It was just a few milliseconds that separated him from Q3 and that’s an effect you can get from air circulation and other cars going round.

"The great thing is that Alex has shown pace all weekend, and I think we have two cars that can score points. We’ve got to keep a level head, and Jeddah always throws a tremendous amount at teams, so let’s take every opportunity that comes our way tomorrow."

Carlos continue our reaction by adding: "I enjoyed pushing the limits of the car today, especially on such a demanding track where confidence makes a big difference. I'm proud of the progress we're making and felt more at home in the car from the start of FP1.

"The target for tomorrow is to bring home as many points as possible. This will require patience, discipline, and I will need to pick my battles to maximise the race result. Let’s go for it!"

Alex reflected on his Saturday by sharing: "Today was frustrating because we should have been in the top ten quite comfortably, but we missed it. We went out in Q2 when nobody else did and this track is a bit like Monza in that you need the air circulation and in Q2 we didn’t have a tow; I needed two or three cars starting their outlaps or something to get the air moving.

"I was really happy with my lap and we were strong on the straights. We have the car to score points and there are opportunities tomorrow so let’s see how it plays out in the race."