Logan Sargeant believes the pace in his Williams was good, but is frustrated with his lack of patience that saw him crash again during qualifying for the 2023 Japanese Grand Prix.
He now trails Alex Albon 16-0 in the qualifying head-to-head as the rookie continues to struggle with successfully hooking a lap up, being knocked out in Q1 in 12 of the weekends.
The crash followed a relatively promising FP3 that had seen him go faster than Albon by just over a tenth, but for Sunday’s race he will now start 20th or from the pit-lane despite feeling good in the car.
“It’s been a another great day until that point,” Sargeant said to the media, sounding deflated. “I think we really turned the car around from yesterday and it was feeling good.
“But we’ve had quite a few issues with rear overheating in the last sector and that, combined with was too aggressive on power, just gave me a big snap; and once I touched the grass there wasn’t wasn’t a lot I could do.
“I think it was just been tricky with the tailwind, combined with the rear overheating, and I just wasn’t patient enough with it. So it’s definitely tricky, but there’s no reason why I should be doing that [crashing].”
Crash cost Sargeant
The rookie crashed coming onto the start-finish straight at the right-hand turn, losing the rear end of his Williams car before touching the grass and slamming into the wall, ending his session and causing a red flag.
Sargeant was set to post a competitive time but with just metres to go until the line it ended in disaster and he isn’t finding comfort in the fact that he was close to his teammate.
“It’s definitely not a silver lining,” Sargeant continued. “I think I’ve been quick all day, but it doesn’t really matter when you don’t do anything with it.”
