Williams technical director Paddy Lowe has denied that the team have made a significant step forward this weekend in Baku, saying that the strong qualifying result the team scored yesterday was track-dependent rather than performance-based.
Speaking to Autosport, Lowe commended both drivers’ performances with the pair making it through into Q2 after a difficult start, but had no misconceptions as to why the added speed had come about.
"It's great morale for the team to get two cars into the top of Q2 and almost into Q3, and underneath that there are some incremental improvements we've made in all sorts of areas, whether to the car or operationally.
"But on the other hand, this circuit suits our car well, it was the same last year.
"We're not under the illusion that we've made this much progress in terms of overall performance."
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Lance Stroll will start from 10th position alongside teammate Sergey Sirotkin in 11th.
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Austrian Grand Prix
Overview
Friday 26.06.26
Practice 1
11:30 AM
Practice 2
03:00 PM
Saturday 27.06.26
Practice 3
10:30 AM
Qualification
02:00 PM
Sunday 28.06.26
Race
01:00 PM
Friday 26.06.26
Practice 1
Fri 11:30 AM
Practice 2
Fri 03:00 PM
Saturday 27.06.26
Practice 3
Sat 10:30 AM
Qualification
Sat 02:00 PM
Sunday 28.06.26
Race
Sun 01:00 PM
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