At first, it looked like Albon just didn’t make the cut in Q1. He was pushed out by Nico Hulkenberg by only 0.042 seconds. Some people wondered if Williams had waited too long to send Albon out for his final lap.

But after Q2 had already started, it was announced that Hulkenberg had gone off track at Turn 11 in Q1 and his lap time should have been deleted. This would have moved Albon into the top 15 and into Q2.

However, because the decision came so late, Albon couldn’t take part in Q2. He was promoted to 15th place, but it was too late for him to actually go out and try to improve.

Williams team boss James Vowles was not happy with how things were handled. He said to Sky Sports: “A bit of injustice with Alex today, I’m not feeling good about this.

“Obviously the track limits are analysed live, but the result for Hülkenberg came way after we would have an opportunity to go to Q2, and today Alex had the pace to make it all the way to Q3. What I’d like to understand now is why this happened.”

Later, the FIA explained what went wrong. Turn 11 was not one of the corners they were watching closely for track limits during Q1. They didn’t spot Hulkenberg going off until Aston Martin told them to take another look. By then, Q2 had already started.

The official statement read:

“There are a number of track limit hot spots which are monitored continuously live. Track limit hot spots are given precedence. Based on previous sessions, Turn 11 was not deemed to be an area of focus for track limits. 

“In hindsight, it should have been higher on our priority list as a corner. Checks in areas of the circuit such as Turn 11 take a bit longer than those of a high priority.

“Unfortunately, in this case due to the timing of the check it was not possible to act before the start of Q2. As soon as we became aware of the incident, we acted on it. 

“We are building towards increased resources and improved systems and processes. On this occasion, we got it wrong.”

The FIA used their rules to delete Hulkenberg’s time from Q1 and all of his Q2 laps. He was moved down to 16th. Albon got 15th, but he missed his chance to fight for a better spot.

Despite everything, Albon stays positive and focused on the race: “We have some of the strongest race pace in the midfield and at least you can overtake on this track.

“It’s going to be tricky to score points, but it is possible and I will give it everything to recover from what happened today.”

His teammate Carlos Sainz starts in eighth place, so there’s still hope for Williams to get a good result. But for Albon, the FIA’s slow reaction was a big missed chance.