Albon accuses Haas of ‘dirty’ tactics that thwarted final Q2 run

A frustrated Alexander Albon lashed out at Haas and Oliver Bearman over team radio during Saturday’s Spanish Grand Prix qualifying, accusing the team of deliberately hindering his final flying lap in Q2 – a moment that ultimately cost the Williams driver a shot at Q3.

Albon narrowly missed the top ten shootout by just three-hundredths of a second and was left fuming after catching Bearman’s Haas through the final sector of the lap, particularly around Turn 12.

The Anglo-Thai racer called out Haas when speaking to his race engineer on the cooldown lap after his thwarted run.

“They were dirty, dirty, Haas,” he said. “They just… they knew what they were doing. Purposefully slow in sector three.

“Yeah Haas, sorry, not good,” he added. “Also Lewis [Hamilton] turn seven as well.”

The Williams driver felt robbed of a potential Q3 appearance at a circuit where Williams has historically struggled. The frustration was compounded by the fact that he felt the car had the pace for a top-10 spot — and by the narrow margin he missed out by.

“But that’s life, it’s fine margins,” Albon later told the official F1 channel.

A Calmer Reflection Amid Disappointment

In the media pen after the session, a more composed Albon softened his stance, though the sting of the missed opportunity lingered.

“Honestly, Ollie’s not in the way, I [didn’t] have to brake and I’m not getting disturbed by the object of his car, let’s say,” he explained.

“We just carry so much dirty air and the dirty air was a bit too dirty for sector three.”

Albon’s frustration was compounded by a challenging weekend that had already tested Williams’ resilience.

“The build-up to the weekend has been really disturbed,” Albon explained. “We obviously missed out in FP1 with our reserve driver, Victor [Martins], taking a seat.

“Then we had some issues in FP3 so we only did, I think, two laps of low-fuel running before we went into qualifying so we were really on the back foot for most of the weekend.

Read also:

• Barcelona Speed Trap: Who is the fastest of them all?

“We had an issue in FP3 that we fixed but we didn’t know where the balance of the car was going to be.

“We took a bit of a guess and it worked out to be okay but we had to use all the tyres in Q1 just to get me up to speed. I used three sets, and then it just put us on the back foot for Q2, so we only had one set to set the lap time.”

Progress Noted Despite Setback

Despite the frustration, Albon found reason to be optimistic, particularly considering Williams’ lack of past competitiveness at Barcelona.

“It’s a shame to miss out on Q3 but at the same time I’m really happy, that’s the first time I’ve been through into Q2 with Williams [here], and almost in Q3.

“It shows all of us that we’re going in the right direction. But we still have some work to do.”

Though emotions flared in the moment, Albon's performance marked a notable step forward for Williams – even if the final chapter of Saturday’s session left him feeling shortchanged.

Keep up to date with all the F1 news via X and Facebook