Alex Albon says his qualifying at Silverstone was compromised not only by Williams’ decision to run two sets of soft tyres in Q1 but also Max Verstappen’s slow out-lap.

Albon and his team-mate Carlos Sainz made flying starts to qualifying for the British Grand Prix, with the team-mates inside the top 10 in Q1, but they both fell short in Q2.

Alex Albon: So frustrating. Very frustrating

Additional reporting by Thomas Maher

Albon wants a review as he feels Williams made a few poor decisions.

Albon was up in fourth place in Q1 when Franco Colapinto spun off during qualifying, tagging the barrier with the nose of his Alpine. He was able to keep the car going and returned to the track only to park it as the damage was too severe to continue.

His incident meant that while initially the yellow flags were shown, and then lifted as Colapinto got going, a short while later that became a red flag.

But by that time, Williams had sent Albon out on a new set of soft tyres. It meant the Thai-British racer had just one set of brand-new soft tyres to use in Q2.

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“Yes, I think internally we need to review what went on there, because we put on a set of tyres when Franco crashed, and then we went out on the track when it was quite clear it was going to be a red flag, so, basically we immediately wasted a set in qualifying,” he told the media, including PlanetF1.com.

“We went into Q2 run one on a used set of tyres. Until this point, we were looking good, feeling good, and I actually did a pretty good lap in Q2 run one, considering it was used tyres.”

However, his second issue popped up after he bolted on his last remaining new set of soft tyres – Max Verstappen.

Albon was released behind the Red Bull driver and the Dutchman’s slow out-lap wrecked Albon’s tyre preparation and he went into his final flying lap with his tyres underprepared.

He finished down in 14th place, 0.805s off the pace, and three positions behind his team-mate Sainz.

“Then we go into Q2 run two and try to go out at the very front of the pack, where Max is, and Max’s out-lap is about 15–20 seconds slower than ours, so we did Q2 run two on our final new set basically not even close to being ready. Q2 was obviously compromised, let’s say that,” he continued.

“We need to review what we did. We generally do go on the early side in qualy, we like to, but today was too much. We need to understand why we like to go so early all the time.

“I mean, we’ve been quick all weekend. We’re quick in Q1, we’re quick in Q2 run one, and then it’s like, yeah, P14. So frustrating. Very frustrating.”

The Williams team-mates will line up ninth and 13th due to penalties for Kimi Antonelli and Oliver Bearman.

They head into Sunday’s race with a huge reliability concern hanging over their heads with the team suffering several power unit issues in recent weeks. It had Williams not only focusing on race sims in Friday’s heat, but the team then changed the engines overnight.

“The risk is there for both of us,” Sainz said. “It just coincides that Alex had it and maybe I’ve been free from it. I’ve had other issues, a lot of other issues. So let’s wait for tomorrow.

“But yeah, I am confident the team has done everything in their hand and in their power to change everything. So we’ll change everything we can then the rest we will see.”

The reliability issues have cost Williams as while they still hold down fifth place in the Constructors’ Championship with 55 points, their rivals have closed the gap with Racing Bulls just 19 points behind.

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