Logan Sargeant suffered a gut-wrenching Q1 exit at the Bahrain Grand Prix as he qualified on the same time as Lando Norris but was eliminated as the McLaren man had set his lap first.
Sargeant will start 16th in the Bahrain GP, one place ahead of his teammate, but it was a question of what might’ve been for Williams as Alex Albon finished Q1 ninth but was unable to set a time in Q2.
However, despite the disappointment, Sargeant insisted he was feeling positive ahead of the race as he looks to score points on his F1 debut.
“I think the team deserved both cars in Q2 today,” Sargeant told the media. “I just made a little mistake in Sector 1 that was quite costly, the wind changed in Sector 1 and I couldn’t quite find my braking point.
“But to be honest, as a team the pace we had today is really positive. I feel like I’m getting more and more comfortable and then just iron out those little mistakes moving forward.”
Williams’ huge motivation
William‘s qualifying was a definite improvement on 2022, when they entered the weekend with the slowest car from testing and Nicholas Latifi was six-tenths slower than anyone else on the grid.
Though Albon again made it through to Q2, Sargeant‘s competitiveness in his first F1 qualifying session is a huge plus for Williams.
The American was less than two-tenths behind Albon and to be on par with the precocious Norris, who extracted everything out of his McLaren to qualify 11th, is very promising for team and driver.
Though Albon wasn’t able to replicate his Q1 performance in the next session – he went off on his first flying lap and then wasn’t able to get another run – Williams will be confident of fighting their way towards the points especially if there’s a few retirements.
“For the whole team to see that pace is huge motivation and encouragement,” Sargeant added. “Even just going into tomorrow, I think that pushes everyone to keep working that extra bit harder and we’re just going to keep trying to make the most of it.
“I really went into qualifying with no expectations, it was simply about doing my best to maximize what we had
“I don’t think that was far off but not quite where I would have liked to have been, and having to miss out on Q2 by nothing is a little frustrating.
“The car was in a really good window and the balance was pretty much spot on.”
