Canadian GP qualifying concerns raised as rain threatens

Ewan Gale
Saturday 18 June 2022 17:30 - Updated: 21:52

Williams driver Alex Albon is concerned that rain at the Canadian Grand Prix may prevent qualifying from taking place.

The weather forecast threatened heavy rain for Friday's practice sessions but the two one-hour periods escaped with dry running, although the heavens opened shortly after the conclusion of FP2.

When rain fell on Thursday in Montréal, the pit lane was left flooded such was the intensity of the weather system.

Asked if he was hoping for rain in qualifying, Albon said: "I am not sure what I want because actually, we weren't too bad in the dry. Otherwise, I would have said go for it, go raining.

"What I have seen in the rain is when it does rain, it feels like a monsoon, more accustomed to Thailand and it does throw it down.

"I am a bit worried that if it rains, we won't do a qualifying session."

Williams can be "in the fighting group"

Williams has struggled to consistently fight within F1's midfield this season and with Albon finishing 18th fastest on Friday ahead of team-mate Nicholas Latifi, the trend looks set to continue.

But suggesting there are positives to take into the weekend, Albon explained: "It was actually a pretty good Friday for us.

"We had a pretty good FP1, we tried some things in FP2 that didn't work out. I think there is something in the car we can look at between the two cars and be good for [qualifying].

"It is pretty close in the midfield and if we can find a couple of tenths, we can be in the fighting group so hopefully we can do the right set-up changes and we will be up there."

Additional reporting by Ian Parkes