Carlos Sainz has matched his best qualifying result since leaving Ferrari for Williams at the 2025 Miami Grand Prix after securing sixth place in front of teammate Alex Albon.
The 30-year-old managed a personal-best lap time of a 1:26.569 in Q3 to pip Albon by 0.113 seconds for P6 and P7 on the Miami GP grid. Williams even have each of their cars ahead of both Ferrari cars on the grid after Charles Leclerc and Lewis Hamilton came eighth and 12th.
Hamilton bowed out in Q2 at the Miami GP to pen his worst qualifying result for Ferrari thus far in round six of the 2025 F1 season, while Sainz matched his best result at Williams so far. Sainz also qualified in P6 for the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix last time out when Albon was P11.
Jenson Button tells Carlos Sainz he’s ‘changed’ for the better in qualifying at the Miami GP
Sainz sealing back-to-back P6 results in qualifying for the Grands Prix in Saudi Arabia and in Miami also showed Jenson Button that the Williams driver has ‘changed’ for the better after a frustrating start. The 2009 F1 champion feels qualifying has finally clicked for the Spaniard.
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Williams had seen Sainz qualify in P10, P15, P12 and P8 before he secured P6 in Jeddah and in Miami. He was even slower than Albon by 0.325s in Q3 in Australia, 0.245s in Q2 in China and 0.053 in Q2 in Japan. So, Button was quick to let Sainz know what he thought in Miami.
Button told Sainz on Sky Sports F1 (3/5, 22:51) after he qualified P6 for the Miami GP: “The first few races of the year, you looked like you were ultra quick until Q3, and then the pace didn’t seem to come. That seems to have changed. Saudi, here, [you are] in the top 10.”
Carlos Sainz has out-qualified Williams teammate Alex Albon at three straight Grands Prix
Williams star Albon was wrongly eliminated from qualifying for the Bahrain Grand Prix in Q1, after Sauber driver Nico Hulkenberg progressed to Q2 before the race stewards realised that the German had set his personal-best Q1 time during a lap where he exceeded track limits.
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It marked the first time that Sainz had out-qualified Albon, but the Saudi Arabian GP marked the first time the Spaniard beat the London-born Thai on merit in qualifying. Now, Sainz has also backed up his improved qualifying performance, to also show Button a positive change.
Also, F1 fans are telling Sainz he ‘upgraded’ joining Williams from Ferrari after seeing Leclerc and Hamilton qualify behind the Madrid native and Albon for the Miami GP. Leclerc’s P8 was also very much the best that the Monegasque could manage in the SF-25 in Q3 on Saturday.
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