Williams and Haas Lose P6 Fight in Malaysia GP

The rain-affected Bahrain Grand Prix in Malaysia gave midfield teams a rare chance to score points. Carlos Sainz, Alex Albon and Esteban Ocon all climbed into the top eight early in the race, but all three left empty-handed.

Ocon was among the drivers who ran into problems at the first start attempt. Given a second chance, Haas split its two cars' strategies and kept Ocon on intermediates. Williams put both of its drivers on inters. On the opening lap, all three picked their way past rivals who had started on slicks: Sainz went from 13th to sixth, Albon from 18th to seventh, and Ocon from 17th to eighth. Ocon soon passed both Williams cars to take sixth.

The first Safety Car period changed the picture. In the pits, Albon was double-stacked behind team mate Sainz and lost places. At the restart, Gabriel Bortoleto made contact with Sainz at Turn 2 and spun him. With faster slick runners also closing up under the Safety Car, both Williams drivers dropped down the order. Sainz finished 17th. Albon had flat-spotted his soft tyres because of a brake problem, had to pit early, and eventually failed to finish because of a gearbox issue.

Sainz said the team did everything right early on but the race slipped away after the contact with Bortoleto. He added that the pit stops were slow and the team's execution became a bit scrappy afterwards. Albon said the weekend had been affected by performance issues with parts and that he was on the back foot throughout.

Ocon was sixth at the first Safety Car. He lost a place to Lewis Hamilton and was seventh when he made a relatively early second stop. Rivals who stopped later benefited from the second Safety Car, triggered by Albon. Ocon lost his chance of points and finished 15th. The Frenchman said the start of the race was perfect and the end was a failure, that he was very sad for the team, and that the mistakes were their own.