‘Finally I got it all together!’ – Sargeant thrilled with breakthrough qualifying display in Las Vegas

Williams rookie Logan Sargeant was in understandably high spirits after recording the best grid position of his F1 career to date during qualifying for the Las Vegas Grand Prix.

Having only previously reached Q3 once before, at Zandvoort back in August, the American youngster starred under the lights at the Las Vegas Strip Circuit to back up team mate Alex Albon with a run to seventh position.

READ MORE: Leclerc charges to pole for Las Vegas GP ahead of Sainz and Verstappen

There is another boost for both Williams drivers post-qualifying, with the pair gaining spots thanks to an engine-related grid penalty for Ferrari rival Carlos Sainz.

Speaking after hopping out of the car, Sargeant said: “I’m a happy boy, for sure. It’s just nice to see what we’ve been working on come together.

“I feel like we’ve had that potential for a while, but finally I was able to get it all together over three qualifying sessions, which is nice.

“It was tight there at the end, so I’m glad I was a few hundredths quicker than P10. It’s a great day for the team and I think we have a good race car as well.”

He added: “I think people are going to be a bit annoyed with our straight-line speed tomorrow! We’ll try to attack but we have a good way of defending as well.”

READ MORE: Leclerc hoping for ‘good party’ in Vegas as he sets sights on turning pole into victory

On the other side of the Williams garage, Albon was pleased with his own display after recovering from a crash during final practice that was brought on by brake struggles.

“I struggled with the brakes today, all weekend actually,” he explained. “I lost confidence, had the off in FP3, partly down to that feeling. It’s always a little bit tricky when you get into qualifying and your last lap was a crash, so you’ve just got to get back into the rhythm.

“We did an aggressive strategy, only using one set of [soft] tyres in Q1, which helped us have a bit more laps under our belt before Q2 and Q3. I’m happy.

“The qualifying session didn’t go that smoothly, I wasn’t that happy with the car for the whole session, but each time we went out we were just trying little things, bit by bit getting the car better and better.

READ MORE: Norris labels Las Vegas qualifying a ‘reality check’ after double Q1 exit for McLaren

“We knew this track was going to suit us and that creates a bit of pressure in some ways to perform. Logan’s had an amazing qualifying session as well, and that’s really put us in a good place for tomorrow.”

Williams head into the race looking to strengthen their grip on seventh position in the constructors’ standings, with the Grove outfit currently seven points clear of Alfa Romeo, 12 ahead of AlphaTauri and 16 up on Haas.