Williams finds unexpected form for Dutch GP as Carlos Sainz looks to end points drought

Carlos Sainz had a difficult second practice session ahead of the 2025 Dutch Grand Prix, but had a smile on his face when he took off his helmet. Despite finishing 16th on the timesheets, he finished Friday describing his Williams’s pace as “promising”. 

“Every time I was on a hot lap and every time was a purple sector one actually, I got a VSC or a yellow flag or a red flag,” Sainz explained after Friday’s running at Zandvoort. “So, we couldn’t close a lap on the soft, but up until that yellow or red that was coming out, the pace was promising.”

Both Sainz and his team-mate Alex Albon had a frustrating Friday as the former struggled to put in a clean lap, recording a time 1.792 seconds behind pacesetter Lando Norris. The latter had a light crash and ended up beached at Turn 1 after finishing fifth at the close of FP1.

The Spaniard was encouraged by the difference in how his car felt between the two sessions.

Carlos Sainz, Williams

Photo by: Andrew Ferraro / LAT Images via Getty Images

“We did a good step from P1 to P2 and I felt at home with the car,” Sainz continued. “So, a relatively positive start to the weekend. I know the timesheets don’t show it because we are obviously on the back end of the timesheets. But when you look at the detail, we are actually not bad, which I don’t really understand why because the track shouldn’t really suit us.”

The Williams cars have historically struggled at high downforce tracks like that of Zandvoort, but Sainz remains confident, albeit while tempering expectations.

“I’m not saying we should be purple at any point tomorrow in quali. I think purple is a difficult thing to do nowadays, but somewhere hopefully in the top 10 after a race where in Hungary, even maximising everything, it was impossible to be in the top 10,” he said. “So, hopefully this weekend we can fight for our top 10 and that will give us better opportunities to then get some points. It’s been a while.”

This will be an opportunity for Sainz to bounce back after a streak of pointless weekends, with his last point coming from the Canadian Grand Prix weekend in which he finished the grand prix in 10th.