Williams is seeking answers from the FIA after a bizarrely lengthy delay to punish Nico Hulkenberg for exceeding track limits cost Alex Albon a place in Q2 during qualifying for Formula 1’s Bahrain Grand Prix.
Albon was knocked out in Q1 in 16th by just 0.042 seconds, suffering his first intra-team qualifying defeat to new Williams team-mate Carlos Sainz, who went on to qualify an impressive eighth.
But it emerged some time later that Albon shouldn’t have been among the five drivers eliminated in Q1 because Hulkenberg’s fastest lap that got him through to Q2 included a track limits breach at Turn 11.
Without that laptime, he should not have been put through to Q2 as his next best lap was slower than Albon’s fastest.
The Race understands that the track limits breach was not automatically picked up by the FIA, but it came under the spotlight after rival Aston Martin complained to race control about it.
The stewards revealed after qualifying that it hadn't been flagged to them until Q2 was underway.
With the FIA prompted into action, its decision to take the time away from Hulkenberg came almost 45 minutes later – long after Albon had been prevented from taking any further part in qualifying.
Without Esteban Ocon crashing out of Q2 and causing a red flag delay, the deletion would have come through after Q3 had ended. Instead, it came during the delayed Q3.
With Q2 already having taken place, this was too late for Albon to be allowed into Q2 and for Hulkenberg to be knocked out.
Ironically, Hulkenberg's fastest time in Q2 was disallowed anyway for track limits, so he had ended up 15th before eventually being moved behind Albon after the officials took the original Q1 times into consideration.
Williams wants answers from the FIA
Williams team boss James Vowles wasn’t impressed after qualifying and wants answers from the FIA.
"I'm not feeling good about this, it's frustrating,” Vowles told Sky Sports F1.
“The track limits are analysed live, but the result for Hulkenberg came way after we would have an opportunity to go to Q2.
“Alex had the pace to make it all the way to Q3.
“Q1, wasn't the best out lap, was blocked quite significantly [but] what we need to understand, and I'm waiting for the report from the FIA, is why was this analysed so much later than that?
“It's not one position gained, it could be many positions gained.
“What I'd like to understand now is why this happened; [but] it's not going to rectify the positions, the position is where it is on the grid."
Albon 'not comfortable today'
The unfortunate delayed laptime deletion added to a miserable qualifying for Albon, with both Vowles and Albon believing he had the pace for much better.
The team admitted fault in running Albon so late in Q1. He had to wait in the pitlane with cooling tyres and had to overtake multiple cars on his out-lap.
"I was supposed to go out with the train [of cars] but we ended up having to wait for everyone to go past, so we were waiting there for three minutes," Albon explained.
"I think tyres dropped about 25, 30 degrees Celsius, these tyres don’t like that. So we overtook three or four cars on the out-lap, trying to make it up.
"Also just trying to get a time on the board, I think we were quite tight to the finish of the session.
"Then in Turn 1, 2,3 the tyres were very cold. Unfortunate, tricky honestly, not comfortable today. But definitely not 'out of Q1' pace."
Albon is at least optimistic that the promise of more strategic variation and overtaking opportunities at the Sakhir circuit versus Suzuka last week will allow him to make up some ground from 15th.
“I don’t think it will be bad because we don’t have a Japan race, we’re going to see strategy, a one stop, possibly two stops. Hoping two stops for me just to try get up,” Albon said.
“We had really good pace on Friday. Let’s see if we can use it. I think it’s quite hard to do much when you’re P16.”
The deleted Verstappen lap
If you were paying close attention to the timing screen during Q1 you may have seen a bizarre Max Verstappen lap time deletion message, whereby a notification that his next laptime would be deleted came just before the chequered flag in Q1 for a track limits breach at Turn 15 on the previous lap.
That’s because Verstappen went off the road at Turn 15 on his first proper flying lap of Q1 and aborted the lap, diving straight into the pits.
That triggers an automatic deletion of his next lap. So when Verstappen came out of the pits for his final run, his out-lap was deleted, hence that message in the dying moments of Q1.
