Sargeant admits he was 'just not quick enough' after coming close to scoring in Sao Paulo GP

Logan Sargeant has conceded he and Williams were “just not quick enough” in Brazil as the American rookie came close to netting his second point in Formula 1.

In what has been a rollercoaster first season in the sport, Sargeant was delighted when he earned his first point back in Austin following the disqualifications of Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc post-race. But his efforts in Sao Paulo almost earned him another score, which would also have boosted Williams’ mood on a day when his team mate Alex Albon crashed out at the race start.

READ MORE: Albon, Magnussen and Hulkenberg react to their opening lap crash

Sargeant had started the Grand Prix in P19 on the medium tyre, but the red flag that followed the aforementioned crash allowed him a chance to swap straight onto the preferred soft tyre. From there he climbed through the field to finish 11th behind the Alpine of Esteban Ocon.

“I wanted to capitalise and have a good race after quite a few cars went out in Turn 1,” Sargeant said following the race. “We just missed pace to be honest.

“Obviously I don’t have a reference to Alex unfortunately, but we just struggled a lot with rear overheating, rear degradation, and just not quick enough.”

Despite being unable to score in the Grand Prix – with AlphaTauri able to take a further two points out of Williams’ margin over them in the constructors’ standings – there were still plenty of positives to take for Sargeant with another clean and solid weekend under his belt.

“Yeah, it is,” the rookie acknowledged when asked if his day would give him more confidence. “I think this weekend, especially on low fuel, I’ve had the pace I needed.

“So, yeah, try and carry that forward, deliver in Vegas – another home race for me, so I’m excited for that – and go from there.”

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With the spectacle that is the Las Vegas Grand Prix coming up, Sargeant and the rest of the Williams team will want to turn in a good performance – in part so they can cement their P7 place in the constructors’ standings.

Yuki Tsunoda’s performances in both the Sprint and Grand Prix in Brazil earned AlphaTauri a welcome five points across the weekend – though the Japanese racer still thought he could have picked up more – and the Faenza-based squad are now just one place and seven points behind Williams.

“AlphaTauri were able to take a further two points out of our margin over them in the championship,” said Dave Robson, Williams’ Head of Vehicle Performance, after the Grand Prix.

“Whilst this is concerning, we were fortunate that they were unable to score more points today as their pace was very strong.

“We have a brief break now before we go to Las Vegas for the first part of the final double-header. We still have a lead over our direct rivals and plenty of opportunity to defend that to the end of the season.”

POWER RANKINGS: It's close at the top as the scores come in from the final Sprint weekend of the year in Brazil