Logan Sargeant described his error as a “millimetre mistake” as he crashed out of his maiden Q3 appearance at Formula 1’s Dutch Grand Prix.
Sargeant progressed through to the top 10 shootout in slippery conditions at Zandvoort before the circuit dried sufficiently for slick tyres to be used in Q3.
Sargeant was on his second push lap in the early stages of Q3 when he spun on the entry to Turn 2 and crashed out of the session.
The impact caused substantial damage to the FW45 but Sargeant is still due to start the race from the foot of the top 10.
“The last thing I ever want to do is leave the team with a boat load of damage,” said Sargeant.
“I’m doing my best to deliver good results. I think there’s been so many positives this weekend. Yesterday in the dry, I feel like I was really pretty much right there. I think the long run pace was really good. We’ve had the car in a great window.
“Even Q1, Q2, I missed a little bit of pace today in the wet, but I think the biggest positive for me is delivering laps when I needed to. And that’s something I’ve lacked this year, and to be able to do that has been really nice today. But yeah, it’s all just shattered by a millimeter mistake.”
Sargeant’s performance came on a day in which Williams team-mate Alex Albon equalled his best qualifying result by taking fourth.
Sargeant added that Williams “didn’t expect this [circuit] to be a great one for us” and that “it’s something we’ll dig into.
“It’s just mixed emotions, definitely bittersweet. I think from my point of view, I need to look back at it, see what I did wrong first of all, see if there was just a tiny mistake that was unavoidable or if it was a mindset thing, I haven’t quite understood it yet, but I need to figure that out.
“And then not dwell on it, because our long run pace was great yesterday. And hopefully get the car rebuild as close as we can, and try to utilise that with good long run pace that we have and try to score some points.”
