Saturday’s last follow on the Dutch Grand Prix noticed moist and wet situations disrupt the session, and an additional disruption got here close to the tip of the hour as Logan Sargeant slammed into the barrier close to Flip 5. The large shunt brought about important harm to his FW46 and touched off a harmful scenario as Sargeant scrambled from the cockpit and the rear of the automobile caught hearth.
The harm was an excessive amount of for the crew to beat, as Sargeant was unable to take to the monitor in qualifying.
Following the session, the American driver lamented a “small mistake with a giant consequence” that ruined his day.
“It was a small mistake with a giant consequence, simply touching the grass and that was it. Clearly, a giant hit however I’m okay,” stated Sargeant within the crew’s post-qualifying report. “There’s loads to repair on the automobile so I really feel for everybody engaged on it tonight to get it prepared for tomorrow. All we are able to do is regroup, go once more and try to have race.”
Issues had been significantly better for Williams on the opposite facet of the storage. Whereas Alexander Albon was not in a position to match his qualifying efficiency from a 12 months in the past, when he positioned fourth, Albon stormed into Q3 and completed eighth, his greatest qualifying results of the 2024 marketing campaign.
“I’m actually proud of P8 and that our upgrades have helped us safe this place,” stated Albon. “It’s been very windy and gusty on the market and it looks like in the event you had been 10 seconds behind one other automobile, they may have a totally completely different wind to you and it was halves of seconds that had been within the wind, so it felt a bit of just like the lottery.
“We’ve made a giant step with the load in addition to the aero improve and it’s not the entire package deal both with extra to return quickly, so it’s all trying optimistic,” added Albon. “The automobile felt sturdy and received higher on every lap, so it’s nice to get this end in these situations at the moment and to see the upgrades working nicely. We are able to all be blissful, so a giant thanks to the crew for working arduous to have the updates prepared.
Williams enters the Dutch Grand Prix sitting ninth within the Constructors’ Championship with 4 factors on the 12 months, seven factors behind eighth-place Alpine. However Albon heads into Sunday’s predominant occasion driving excessive.
“We’ll be within the combine tomorrow, I’m feeling assured.”
Returning to Sargeant, the implications of that “small mistake” may very well be even larger than simply lacking out on qualifying. In line with reporting from Erik van Haren from De Telegraaf, the incident may result in Group Principal James Vowles changing Sargeant this season. In line with this reporting Vowles is maybe Mick Schumacher or Liam Lawson as choices for Williams the remainder of the season.
