Home soil qualifying best ‘extra special’ for Sargeant

Logan Sargeant believes he finally delivered on the potential he’s been showing in recent rounds to secure sixth on the grid at the Las Vegas Grand Prix, and that it’s ‘extra special’ to do so in the United States.

The last time Sargeant raced in front of a home crowd he scored his first point in Formula 1 back in Austin, and was set to finish 12th in Mexico before retiring on the final lap before following that with 11th in Brazil. On each occasion he had dropped out of qualifying in Q1, but Sargeant then advanced to Q3 for only the second time in his rookie season in Las Vegas and will start a career-best sixth.

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“For sure, it means a lot,” Sargeant said. “I think after putting so much hard work into trying to be able to do these things, it's very irritating when in the past rounds you see the potential but you don't do it. I came today and just didn't want to look at anyone else but myself. Not focus on anyone else, just drive the best I can. And obviously happy to have delivered in three sessions and three laps.

“Definitely a very happy boy. I just feel like, especially to execute over three separate sessions, finally extracting this potential that we've had, and to do it here in Vegas is extra special. And I think highlighted by the fact we have a great car here and it's not easy to deliver on that performance. So the fact you're able to do that and you continuously do that through the whole qualifying session is awesome.”

Sargeant was seventh in Q3 but is promoted one place by Carlos Sainz’s grid penalty, with the Floridian now targeting more points given how fast the Williams is in a straight line.

“I think when we showed up today and the track really started to grip up, it started to come more and more towards our car. And to be honest, it is becoming more and more fun to drive every session as the grip is coming. I don't think we could have done a whole lot more today. I think we've extracted everything very well.

“And most importantly, we have two cars at the front of the grid to try and keep that. Just hats off to everyone in the team. Everyone's worked hard, we knew this weekend was a good opportunity, and we're off to the right start.

“Obviously the goal is we've had great race pace the past three or four races and trying to keep that up tomorrow. So yeah, obviously you want to continue this and have a great day tomorrow. And I think we have a very annoying car down the straights for others so we'll try and use that to our advantage.”