FIA admits huge mistake which changed result of Bahrain Grand Prix qualifying

Alex Albon was the injured party as Nico Hulkenberg made it through to Q2 in qualifying with what was later found to have been an illegal lap, but it was too late for the Williams driver

The stewards have explained the controversial mistake which robbed Alex Albon of the chance to fight for a high grid slot at the Bahrain Grand Prix. The British-Thai racer was knocked out in the first part of qualifying in an unusually poor result for his standards this season.

It looked as though he had done enough to squeeze through to the second part of the section but Nico Hulkenberg found enough improvement on his final lap to leapfrog the Williams racer. As a result, Albon was condemned to 16th place on the grid.

He will actually start 15th, though, as it later emerged that Hulkenberg’s lap was illegal. Track limits violations are usually noticed in a matter of seconds but Q2 was already well under way before the FIA realised that the German had gone off track at turn 11. Had it been noticed at the time, he would have been out in Q1 and Albon would have been able to progress.

That was lamented by his team principal James Vowles who felt his driver could have reached the top 10. Vowles said: “A bit of injustice with Alex today, I’m not feeling good about this.

“Obviously the track limits are analysed live, but the result for Hulkenberg came way after we would have an opportunity to go to Q2, and today Alex had the pace to make it all the way to Q3. What I’d like to understand now is why this happened.”

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Vowles now has an explanation, as the stewards have issued a detailed description of what happened and how Hulkenberg’s track limits violation was initially missed. They said: “During Q1, Car 27 [Hulkenberg] clearly exceeded track limits in Turn 11. However, this was not reported to the stewards until Q2 had commenced.

“Car 27’s time recorded on the lap that track limits were exceeded, was sufficient to place it in Q2. Hence at the time the stewards were informed that Car 27 had breached the race director’s event notes and that its lap should have been deleted, it was already on track in Q2.

“As this is an unusual situation, the stewards have decided to settle the matter by exercising their authority under Article 11.9.2.a of the FIA International Sporting Code. The lap time of 1:31.998 of Car 27 recorded in Q1 is deleted. All lap times of Car 27 in Q2 are deleted. Car 27 will therefore be classified in position 16 in qualifying.”

Of course, that outcome is of no material help to Albon or Williams. There was some good news for them, though, as Carlos Sainz produced his best qualifying performance of the season so far to secure eighth place on the grid in the other car.

It is the first time the Spaniard has out-qualified Albon since he joined the team this year. But Vowles has been a staunch defender of his new signing and insisted, despite the fact Sainz has scored only one point so far, that Williams have got “more than I paid for” out of him.

The team principal added: “Our car has a very different style of adapting to it than the Ferrari. He’s getting there – he’ll be on the money very shortly. The car is faster thanks to the work and effort, the work ethic he’s put in, and how he really develops with the engineers.

“That’s why Carlos was my number one target. It’s because he’s absolutely brilliant at developing teams, and he’s already bringing that to the table.”