07 March 2023 , 13:32
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Logan Sargeant silenced those who may be doubting the American's readiness to be on the Formula 1 grid with an excellent first ever racing lap in the sport.
Sargeant is the first driver from the US to race in F1 for several years, while no American has held a full-time race seat since Scott Speed's final start for Toro Rosso in 2007. He was promoted by Williams for the 2023 season to replace the outgoing Canadian Nicholas Latifi.
Granted, he was not the team's first choice. A loan-style deal was being worked on to put Oscar Piastri in the car this year and, after that fell through, Williams tried to coax Nyck de Vries into joining but he chose AlphaTauri.
The original plan was to give Sargeant an extra year in F2 to hone his craft, but his path was accelerated and he made his F1 debut in Bahrain last weekend. He qualified 16th despite setting the exact same Q1 time as Lando Norris and impressed further on race day, climbing a few places to finish 12th.
Sargeant finished higher than the other two rookies – made all the more impressive by the fact De Vries and Piastri are both former F2 champions. And footage from his onboard camera from the first lap showed he came into his F1 debut full of confidence.
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The 22-year-old Floridian got a great launch off the line and had overtaken the Alfa Romeo piloted by Zhou Guanyu by the time he emerged from the first corner. But Sargeant wasn't done there – quickly making light work of Yuki Tsunoda with a gutsy move around the outside at Turn 4.
He pulled off a similar move on Nico Hulkenberg around the outside of Turn 8 on that same first lap and was right on the gearbox of his team-mate Alex Albon. It was a good day for Williams overall as the British-Thai racer scored a point in 10th and Sargeant did very well on debut.
The American said after: "Really pleased with my first race. I feel like, you know everything operationally, from race start to pit-stops, VSC [Virtual Safety Car], everything went smoothly and really happy with the pace that me and Alex had today.
"I think the team has done an amazing job all weekend, just unlocking that pace. We probably didn't expect where we were now compared to the test, and that's just a massive testament to the work that the team has done. Super proud of everyone."
Asked about those early overtakes he added: "I just looked for the gaps and tried to fill them. I didn't ask for too much! But yeah, it just fell my way. I really enjoyed it, I loved every second of it, I loved the on-track battles and it was super fun."