How an unexpected battle for P6 in Malaysia fell apart for Williams and Haas

Formula 1’s midfield is so closely matched that points are hard to come by, and any top-10 finish counts as a real achievement.

So when factors such as rain throw a curve ball and create opportunities, it’s essential for those teams and their drivers to get everything right and take full advantage.

For Carlos Sainz, Alex Albon and Esteban Ocon the early stages of the Bahrain Grand Prix in Malaysia promised much as they made the right tyre calls and did the job on track to charge into the top eight. However, in the end, all three were to be left disappointed.

Ocon was one of the drivers who hit problems at the original start attempt, but having been given a second chance he and Haas got it right by opting for intermediates for the start as the team split its two cars. Williams also made the optimum call by putting both drivers on inters.

On the first lap it was almost like a video game for all three, as they picked their way past those ahead who had started on slicks. At the end of the lap Sainz was P6 (from 13th), Albon P7 (from 18th) and Ocon P8 (from 17th). The Haas driver was flying, and he soon made his way past both FW48s to claim P6.

At that stage – and with the slick runners falling far behind – it was looking good for all three, but the fun was not to last.

Albon was running behind Sainz when the first Safety Car sent the field into the pits for slicks, and he lost places while double-stacked behind his team mate.

At the restart Sainz was nudged into a spin at Turn 2 by Gabriel Bortoleto. With faster cars that started on slicks gaining ground under the Safety Car both Williams drivers tumbled down the order, with Albon also fighting brake problems. Sainz had to settle for P17 at the flag.

“We were having the race and doing everything right to score a point or two today,” said the Spaniard. “But then the race went away from us, obviously with the touch with Gabi taking us off. Even though I left the space, I don’t think he expected the inside of Turn 2 to be wet, and he just bumped into me.

“It was dry from there on, and it's not like our pace was amazing. Our pit stops were also not good. So it would have been a difficult day anyway.

“We would have needed to execute a perfect race, and we had two very slow pit stops. And the execution of the race from there onwards wasn't great either. I don't know if that bump from Gabi threw us off a bit as a team, but from there it was a bit scrappy, to be honest.”

To add insult to injury, Albon didn’t even see the flag due to a late gearbox problem.

“I lost out on the double stack,” he said. “We had to box early because I flat-spotted my soft tyres with the brake issue. So then it just felt like it fell away from us. The performance was nowhere, but also nowhere on my side as well.

“Unfortunately, you just want a smooth weekend, a feeling of progress, but we've had issues with parts this weekend. Not lack of parts, just performing parts, and unfortunately, if you're not on the one part that you have, you use your second best stuff, it's not good enough, and you're immediately on the back foot. And I was on the back foot massively all weekend.”

In contrast to the two Williams drivers, Ocon survived the first Safety Car period in good shape, and still in P6.

He lost a place to the flying Lewis Hamilton, but was still P7 when he made a relatively early second stop.

Others who hung on for a later stop benefited from the second Safety Car, triggered by Albon. Points thus slipped out of his hands, and he finished P15.

“We took the right tyre for the start, I decided to stay on the inter, which was the right thing,” said the Frenchman. “We had a mega first lap on the inter, I was overtaking cars. I was up to P6. It was really good. And then from the first time we boxed, we started moving rearwards.

“So we need to exactly see what happened, but we deserved more today. We had new tyres in stock. We also boxed to used tyres at the end, and we missed the last Safety Car also.

“So 100% the start of the race, 0% at the end part of the race, of success. A bit of mixed emotion, but super sad for the whole team that has worked super hard to get this car to where it was, because it was healthy, it was working well.

“We had great pace on the soft tyre in the beginning and on the inter, and we should have been fighting for the points, and we were there. So very disappointed. But it's our fault – so we'll keep working on it.”