Logan Sargeant was left confused by the inconsistent policing of track limits throughout the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix weekend that saw his only competitive lap time deleted in qualifying.
The new Williams driver posted a 1:29.721s to go quicker than his team-mate Alex Albon after the opening runs of Q1.
However, Sargeant’s first effort was hastily deleted by the race stewards, who noted he had fractionally crossed over the pit lane entry line down the start-finish straight.
The race director’s pre-event notes established that any participant that committed such an offence would have their particular lap time invalidated.
But Sargeant, whose time would have been good enough for 13th, voiced his frustration at being punished for an infringement that he believes hadn’t been properly enforced until that point.
“I guess I just put my front left on the paint at pit entry, it’s frustrating, there’s been no policing all weekend and we had no reference coming into qualifying and I do what I’ve done all weekend and it got deleted,” he rued.
Nevertheless, Sargeant has taken the blame for failing to set a representative lap time thereafter.
Having failed to progress into Q2 in Bahrain on the basis of setting the same lap time second to Lando Norris, Sargeant was pushing hard in the dying embers of Q1.
But a spin at Turn 22 proceeded to bring out the double-waved yellow flags and spelt an unpleasant end to his second-ever qualifying session in Formula 1.
“It’s still my fault, I had two more laps to deliver a time, I didn’t, so obviously I’m disappointed in myself for that, the team gave me a great car and we had a lot of speed to be honest, it is disappointing to not put a lap I for them,” he lamented.
Despite the minor error, Sargeant has asserted he was feeling no additional pressure to match the speed he was able to extract in his erased run.
“Not the second lap, I was on another great lap, was up on myself, was just asking for a little bit too much in [Turn] 22 and once I spun there I lost the feel in the brake pedal so I obviously slammed the brakes there and don’t know if it affected me at Turn 1 the next lap, it’s just frustrating, I feel bad for the team, we deserved a lot more today,” he added.
Instead, the Florida-born racer is convinced it was more a case of overdriving that resulted in his error-strewn qualifying.
“Yeah definitely changes, maybe something I need to do better, it definitely changes the emotion, you’re a bit frustrated, you’ve done a great lap, it’s taken away, and you have to do it again, and taken away for nothing.
“Maybe it’s something I can get better at something to look at for sure, like I said I didn’t feel the pressure for the second lap, was on a great lap, just made a small error.”
With Albon also unable to make it past the first segment, Williams suffered a disappointing qualifying outing, having displayed a promising turn of pace in practice.
Although he was downbeat about the mistake that contributed to his back-row start, Sargeant is determined to make amends tomorrow.
The race stewards have handed him permission to race after he set satisfactory lap times in practice.
“It’s been a difficult weekend to this point, but I felt super comfortable… and just let it slip out of my hands. That’s never a nice feeling.
“But we’ll bounce back tomorrow and try and move up the order,” he said eagerly.
