Logan Sargeant won his first Formula 2 race with a dominant display at the British Grand Prix, the first American victory at this level in seven years.

The Williams young driver and Florida native took his first pole position on Friday and after finishing the reverse-grid sprint race in seventh place, he led away impressively in Sunday’s feature race in front of a large crowd at Silverstone. Sargeant handled a safety car restart before his first pit stop and then withstood late pressure from Theo Pourchaire to take victory.

Logan Sargeant leads Pourchaire en route to victory at Silverstone. Glenn Dunbar/Motorsport Images

The win moves the Carlin driver up to third place in the drivers’ championship — behind Pourchaire and runaway leader Felipe Drugovich — making him the lead rookie in this year’s standings.

Sargeant is technically the first American to win a Formula 2 race since the former GP2 Series was rebranded in 2017, with the previous victory at this level coming for Alexander Rossi in GP2 at the 2015 Russian Grand Prix.

“I think after being extremely good here in F3 in 2020 I knew it was a great opportunity,” Sargeant said. “I was very confident in the car that Carlin gave me. It was a long, hard-fought weekend, Theo put pressure on in the race but I got it done. It’s obviously a good confidence boost as well. Yeah, it’s awesome.”

On the late-race battle with Pourchaire as the Frenchman closed to within DRS range, Sargeant added: “I knew he would get into my dirty air and it would get difficult for him.

“I wasn’t just going to roll over for him so I just tried to nail my laps, keep it clean and it was enough.”