‘Passenger’ Albon left frustrated by Sainz crash on day points were possible, as Sargeant rues ‘too many mistakes’

Williams had high hopes of scoring points on race day in Canada with Alex Albon lining up on the grid in the top-10 and Logan Sargeant in his best grid slot of the year in P13 – but instead of adding to the team's tally, neither driver saw the chequered flag in Montreal.

Sargeant’s DNF was of his own making, the American running off-track twice before the third time saw him clip the barriers and have to retire the car. Albon was simply unlucky in being the first car on the scene as Carlos Sainz spun across the track, left with nowhere to go as the out-of-control Ferrari collected the Williams and sent him into the barriers. Both incidents triggered Safety Car periods.

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Albon had been having a strong race until that point – running in the points for much of it, and pulling off some bold overtakes – including one spectacular effort that saw him spear between Esteban Ocon and Daniel Ricciardo to pick up two places in one corner. As a result, he cut a frustrated figure after the race.

“I was enjoying it out there, those kind of conditions, mixed conditions, there’s a lot to play for and I was having a lot of fun,” Albon said afterwards.

“Then two laps in a row, two drivers went off in the same corner. The first one I lost a position I had to avoid the crash, and the lap after Carlos [Sainz] obviously had his spin.

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“I was kind of expecting him to stop, but the way he kind of rolled around, let’s say when I made my initial move to go left, I thought 'okay that’s fine I’ve got a position,' and then as I saw him coming and rolling around me, I thought 'okay he’s going to clip my rear right' and I was a bit of a passenger. Frustrating as for sure points were available today,” he added.

As for Sargeant, he was even more frustrated than his team mate, with no one to blame for his early exit than himself. With team boss James Vowles making no secret of the fact Williams are actively pursuing Sainz for next year, the American knows he needs some strong drivers if he is to stay in the sport. Instead, he recorded another point-less outing.

“It was tricky [conditions], obviously not the way I wanted it to go, just not good enough, too many mistakes. Two very punishing ones. For sure, very disappointed with myself after feeling like I was driving great this weekend so move on and just look ahead.

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“I think the first one was obviously an excessive amount of water on track. [I] tried to make it work on the inters and just asked for a little bit too much on the brakes and that caused the first one. The second one was a little bit unexpected, just caught me out.”

Sargeant remains without a score so far this year, his best Grand Prix result P14 in Saudi Arabia, while this weekend Alpine leapfrogged Williams for eighth in the championship courtesy of their points haul in Montreal.