Australian GP – Page 2 – Syndication Server

Sainz dominant after Verstappen retires in Australia

Carlos Sainz led a Ferrari one-two after polesitter Max Verstappen retired with brake failure and George Russell forced the race to end under caution after a rollover crash on the penultimate lap of a dramatic Australian Grand Prix. Sainz, who had …

Sainz, who had his appendix removed just two weeks ago and hasn’t trained since, started from the front row and swept into the lead around Verstappen’s outside at the rapid Turn 9-10 chicane on the second lap. But the Dutchman was defenseless, suffering with a stuck right rear brake. Smoke began to pour from the car on the following tour, and before long fire was erupting from beneath the wheel.

A small explosion of braking material confirmed in advance as he entered pit lane that Verstappen would not be able to rejoin the race, ending 43-race finishing streak on the spot.

Sainz inherited the lead and began punching in a series of fastest laps, gapping the pursuing field led by Lando Norris, Charles Leclerc and Oscar Piastri.

With the Spaniard in control at the front, Leclerc was hauled into pit lane early, on lap 9, to undercut Norris and take second place. Piastri followed him in, ensuring both drivers would move into podium positions when the first stop window closed.

Norris dropped to net fourth when he entered the lane five laps later. Except for Sainz — who then stopped on lap 16 without losing the lead — the Briton became the fastest man on track.

McLaren wasted no time ordering Piastri, on older tires, to cede third to his teammate, and before long Norris was lining up Leclerc to relieve him of second. The Monegasque was struggling with his left front tire, prompting the team to bring him in for another early stop to protect against the undercut.

Norris and Piastri followed him in on lap 40 and 39 respectively to resume their chase, but on lighter fuel Leclerc was happier on the hard compound and equal to the defensive challenge.

Now it was Leclerc’s turn to begin moving forward, and in the final four laps of the race he sliced the deficit to his teammate from more than five seconds down to just over three. But the pursuit wasn’t allowed to reach its climax after Russell lost control of his car through the high-speed Turn 6 on the penultimate lap.

[lawrence-auto-related count=3 category=1388]

The Mercedes driver washed out through the gravel and smacked the barriers, tearing off its left front corner. The loose tire jammed under the car as it slid back onto the racetrack, rolling the chassis onto its side before stopping in a dramatic heap in the middle of the road.

Russell emerged unscathed, and a virtual safety car was triggered to end the race at controlled speed. Sainz led Leclerc home in formation finish for Ferrari’s first one-two finish since the 2022 Bahrain Grand Prix.

“It was a really good race,” he said. “It felt really good out there. I was lucky I was more or less on my own and I could manage my pace, manage my tires and everything.

“I’m very happy, very proud of the team, very happy to be one-two with Charles here — it shows hard work pays off.”

Leclerc, who collected the bonus point for fastest lap, praised his teammate’s performance two weeks after his appendectomy in ensuring maximum points for the team.

“It feels good, mostly for the team of course,” he said of his second place. It’s amazing that we can do this.

“Carlos has had an incredible weekend to come back after this surgery. He’s done an amazing race.”

Norris was pleased to complete the podium, describing it as validation of McLaren improving to be a closer match for Ferrari after having challenged Leclerc through the race.

“It was a very good day for us,” he said. “I’m very happy for us as a team. P3 and P4 [for Piastri] is a lot of points in the championship.

“I think our pace was strong enough today, but Ferrari and Carlos did a very good job, so hats off to them.”

Piastri was a comfortable fourth in his native city, an equal best result for an Australian at their home grand prix.

Sergio Perez was an underwhelming fifth in the sole remaining Red Bull Racing car. Perez had started a penalized sixth and dropped to seventh on the first lap and struggled to cut through the field after that.

Fernando Alonso finished sixth ahead of Aston Martin teammate Lance Stroll, who was promoted a place after Russell’s crash.

Yuki Tsunoda was a strong eighth, scoring four points for RB to take the Red Bull-owned team to sixth in the championship.

Haas teammates Nico Hulkenberg and Kevin Magnussen completed the top 10, collecting three points between them.

Alex Albon tried unsuccessfully to defend against Magnussen in the second stint but finished 11th ahead of Daniel Ricciardo, Pierre Gasly, Valtteri Bottas, Zhou Guanyu and Esteban Ocon.

Lewis Hamilton was the race’s only other retirement when his engine failed on lap 16.

Perez given three-place grid penalty in Melbourne

Sergio Perez has been handed a three-place grid penalty for impeding Nico Hulkenberg in qualifying at the Australian Grand Prix. The incident occurred early in Q1, with the stewards opting to investigate it after the qualifying session had been …

Sergio Perez has been handed a three-place grid penalty for impeding Nico Hulkenberg in qualifying at the Australian Grand Prix.

The incident occurred early in Q1, with the stewards opting to investigate it after the qualifying session had been completed. Hulkenberg lost time on his first flying lap when he came across Perez in the final sector, and was eliminated in the first part of qualifying. Perez had originally qualified third, but will now start from sixth as a result of the penalty.

[lawrence-auto-related count=3 category=1388]

“Hulkenberg was on a fast lap when he approached Turn 13,” the stewards’ decision read. “Perez, who was on an out lap was at the apex of the turn and Hulkenberg had to leave the racing line to drive around him. Hulkenberg was forced to lift the throttle early and brake early for that corner.

“In reviewing the audio from Perez’s car, the stewards observed that the team was focused on the car in front of Perez that had just slowed, and did not give Perez a warning that Hulkenberg was behind him until one second before Hulkenberg arrived, and significantly too late to avoid impeding Hulkenberg.

“While the stewards appreciate the dynamic situation facing the team and driver during the Q1 session, which was described in the hearing, the Stewards find that Perez ‘unnecessarily impeded’ Hulkenberg and issue a three grid place drop, consistent with previous cases.”

The penalty promotes Lando Norris to third on the grid for Sunday’s race at Albert Park, with Charles Leclerc now starting from fourth and Oscar Piastri fifth.

Sainz disappointed despite strong return from surgery

Carlos Sainz still feels some disappointment in missing out on pole position at the Australian Grand Prix despite qualifying in second place just 15 days after having his appendix removed. Ferrari enjoyed a strong Friday in Melbourne and Sainz was …

Carlos Sainz still feels some disappointment in missing out on pole position at the Australian Grand Prix despite qualifying in second place just 15 days after having his appendix removed.

Ferrari enjoyed a strong Friday in Melbourne and Sainz was then fastest in the first two sections of qualifying, but was beaten by Max Verstappen by over a quarter of a second in Q3. Sainz missed the last race in Saudi Arabia after being diagnosed with appendicitis, undergoing surgery on March 8, and says his physical state and lost track time leave him with a bittersweet feeling after qualifying on the front row.

[lawrence-auto-related count=3 category=1388]

“It’s a bit of, I think you can see it both ways,” Sainz said. “If you would have told me two weeks ago when I had my appendix removed that I would be in Australia ready to go again and fighting for pole position, I would have 100 percent taken it. But after being P1 in Q1, P1 in Q2 and knowing that I left some time on the table in Q3, it’s obviously a bit disappointing.

“But it’s normal also — with no qualifying in Jeddah I am probably a bit out of shape and probably also learning this new car after missing a qualifying session in Jeddah and a full race. So there are probably things I could have learned through qualifying in Jeddah that I could have applied to today that I couldn’t apply in Q3, and the car surprised me in a couple of corners once we started to crank in the flap, and it wasn’t the cleanest of laps.

“But like I said, if you had told me even five days ago that I would travel here still recovering and qualify P2 while fighting for pole, I would have taken it.”

Sainz says he has been continuing to recover even during the race weekend, also dealing with a psychological challenge based on how he feels in the car.

“At the beginning of the weekend I said I didn’t feel 100 percent and I think it’s impossible to feel 100 percent after spending seven to ten days in bed just trying to recover. But the good thing is that I had no pain, I just had discomfort and everything felt a bit weird inside, but I can push.

“Especially today I can push flat out. Yesterday at the beginning I took it a bit easy and tried to do some tweaks to the seat, to the belts and to the brake pedal. Today when the adrenaline came up in qualifying, I could close the visor and go for it, which is a good thing. Hopefully tomorrow I still do another step of recovery, putting a lot of emphasis on physiotherapy and recovery these days, I have been very focused around it and hopefully I can be OK.

“Without going into too much detail, I feel like it is exactly what Alex [Albon] told me before jumping in the car. He said when he had his appendix removed with the G-force and everything moving, it feels like it is moving more inside than normal and you need some confidence to brace the core and body as you used to before. But you get used to it.

“It’s something where there is no pain, nothing to worry about, just a weird feeling that you have to get used to while driving — especially in this circuit where you are pulling five or six G in some of the braking and some of the corners, so everything is moving but without pain, so I can deal with it and adapt to it also.”

Albon wants to repay ‘true gentleman’ Sargeant with points in Melbourne

Alex Albon says his best way to pay Logan Sargeant back for taking over his car at the Australian Grand Prix would be to score points from 12th on the grid. Williams did not have a spare chassis available due to manufacturing delays, and when Albon …

Alex Albon says his best way to pay Logan Sargeant back for taking over his car at the Australian Grand Prix would be to score points from 12th on the grid.

Williams did not have a spare chassis available due to manufacturing delays, and when Albon damaged his car in a crash in FP1 it meant only one was available for the rest of the race weekend. The decision was taken to withdraw Sargeant and allow Albon to continue, with the latter securing 12th on the grid to start alongside Lewis Hamilton.

[lawrence-auto-related count=3 category=1388]

“It’s a different feeling, a weird feeling, if I’m honest,” Albon said. “It’s one thing making a mistake and the pressure of trying to deliver a performance in qualifying, but it’s another feeling when you’ve been given responsibility — and I take that responsibility, it’s not lost on me — so yeah, it’s tough.

“But at the same time the only thing you can do is focus on your job and put it all behind you and treat the weekend like a normal weekend. We’re obviously a session down but generally that’s all I can really do, and so far we’ve done a good job; just got to keep it going, and the ultimate kind of payback to Logan would be some points.

“Yeah, [points] would be a lovely cherry on the top. We have to be realistic though — I’m next to a Mercedes and I don’t think I’ll see him for too long. Yuki [Tsunoda] is surprising — he’s doing a very strong job in the RB, I think our race is going to be with him. It’s the normal Australia, hopefully three red flags and an opportunity to score some points!”

Sargeant has remained in Melbourne to work with Williams and was present in the garage throughout Saturday’s sessions, with Albon saying his teammate has played a valuable role in helping him recover from Friday’s incident.

“We always chat — we’re very open as a team. I was helping him in FP2 and when the decision was made he was helping me. He’s been a true gentleman; he’s been a true team player in this whole situation. We were talking about FP2, things he liked and didn’t like with the car, similar feedback, so can trust him straight away on it and start FP3 where he left off.”

Racing in the knowledge that another major incident would leave Williams without a usable chassis, Albon insists he hasn’t let it influence how hard he pushes and suggests that the team knew it was likely to be caught out by the lack of a spare chassis at some stage.

“I mean, we’ve been driving like this since race one so it hasn’t changed, and our mindset can’t pull back — you just give it everything. Especially when the midfield is as it is, you can’t leave a percent on the table.

“It’s not how we want to go racing, how I want to go racing, how anyone wants to go racing, but we are in this position. We’ve got to scrap, we’ve got to fight, we’ve obviously put a lot of work and effort and reliance on the factory and it’s been tough. It’s too much, so we’re in a pickle — we’ve been in a pickle since winter testing and it’s catching us up as we knew it would do, so hopefully by China or whenever it’s going to calm down a bit.”

Hamilton ‘on a knife-edge’ as he misses Q3 in Australia

Lewis Hamilton says the Mercedes car is on a knife-edge at the Australian Grand Prix after being eliminated in Q2 for the first time this season. Both Mercedes drivers were struggling in qualifying after solid performances in final practice, with …

Lewis Hamilton says the Mercedes car is on a knife-edge at the Australian Grand Prix after being eliminated in Q2 for the first time this season.

Both Mercedes drivers were struggling in qualifying after solid performances in final practice, with George Russell only advancing to Q3 by 0.059s. The car Russell edged out was Hamilton who had struggled to improve on his final run, and the seven-time world champion says the car had felt much more competitive prior to the start of the qualifying session.

“Every outing you learn something new,” Hamilton said. “P3 felt really good for us and I was really feeling optimistic going into qualifying. But then, I don’t know if it was the wind picking up — the wind picked up quite a bit, same as yesterday — and then the car is just so much more on a knife-edge here.

[lawrence-auto-related count=3 category=1388]

“I haven’t done a long run so I don’t really know [about the race performance], but the other car has. I think everyone’s so fast, so… But it’s a new day, we’ll still try. I’ll give it everything and hopefully I can move forwards.”

Hamilton says there are similarities to how Mercedes has been struggling ever since the introduction of new regulations in 2022, but that there have been more positive signs with the latest car that still give him cause for optimism.

“I mean, it’s three years in a row, similar feeling. There’s these spikes of, ‘Ah, it could be good,’ like this morning, but then it kind of disappears. If we can work out a way of finding that goodness in the car and making it more consistent and holding onto that, then we can be more competitive. There’s lots of work we need to do, but everyone’s working as hard as they can.

“In 2022 we weren’t splitting [setups]. George was doing one thing and I was trying every setup that there was to try and help the team try and find options and figure out how we can fix it. It’s pretty much the same, a little bit similar to this year, I’m trying lots of different things but I think this weekend we’re much closer.”

Verstappen takes pole for Australian GP ahead of Sainz

Max Verstappen took his third consecutive pole position, pinching top spot from Carlos Sainz at the Australian Grand Prix. Verstappen struggled to string together a clean lap in any of the three practice sessions ahead of qualifying, but he banished …

Max Verstappen took his third consecutive pole position, pinching top spot from Carlos Sainz at the Australian Grand Prix.

Verstappen struggled to string together a clean lap in any of the three practice sessions ahead of qualifying, but he banished those bad memories to extinguish hopes of a Ferrari upset.

The reigning champion and 2023 Melbourne polesitter and winner was flawless when it counted. Both his laps in Q3 were quick enough to secure pole, with his fastest time of 1m 15.915s getting the job done with a healthy 0.27s margin.

“It was a bit unexpected,” he said. “But I’m very happy with Q3.

“I think both of those laps felt very, very nice, very enjoyable.

“It’s been tricky this weekend so far, but we managed to be there in the end, so I’m happy with that.”

Sainz was Verstappen’s closest challenger, recovering from appendix surgery two weeks ago, to qualify on the front row at a race in which the majority of winners have come from the first two places on the grid.

“It’s been a tough couple of weeks,” he said. “A lot of days in bed waiting for this moment to see if I could be here today.

“To make it to this weekend and to put it on the front row after leading through qualifying I was almost not believing it.”

Sergio Perez completed the top three for Red Bull, but the Mexican is under threat of a post-race investigation into impeding Nico Hulkenberg in Q1.

Second in the championship, Perez said he was way of Ferrari’s race pace around Albert Park and predicted a varied race.

“I think tomorrow we’ve got a fight on our hands with Ferrari and the rest of the field,” he said. “Starting position is not that relevant at the moment.

“We’ve changed a bit our strategy for tomorrow. Let’s see who can survive the most on the degradation side.”

[lawrence-auto-related count=3 category=1388]

Lando Norris qualified fourth, beating Charles Leclerc to the second row of the grid after the second Ferrari driver made a mistake at Turn 12 that spoilt his last lap.

Home hero Oscar Piastri had consistently been the faster McLaren driver until Q3, when the Australian reported suspected floor damage. He qualified sixth and 0.257s behind teammate Norris.

George Russell heads the fourth row ahead of an excellent Yuki Tsunoda, who made his second consecutive Q3 appearance and came within 0.064s of the Mercedes.

Aston Martin teammates struggled in Q3, with Lance Stroll and Fernando Alonso qualifying a distant ninth and 10th and more than a second off the pace.

Lewis Hamilton was a shock elimination in 11th, continuing a difficult weekend thus far for Mercedes. The Briton, who has a record eight pole positions in Melbourne, missed out on a Q3 berth by just 0.059s, though he was 0.169s behind the next non-Mercedes car, with Russell having just snuck through in 10th.

Alex Albon used his new soft tires early in Q2 to avoid traffic to qualify a commendable 12th ahead of Sauber’s Valtteri Bottas, Haas driver Kevin Magnussen and Alpine’s Esteban Ocon, who made Q2 despite brushing the wall and picking up a rear-left puncture in Q1.

Nico Hulkenberg will line up 16th for Haas ahead of Alpine’s Pierre Gasly, who will be investigated after the session for crossing the pit exit line.

Daniel Ricciardo was bound for 12th place with his final flying lap, but the Australian ran wide exiting Turn 4 approaching Turn 5, for which his best time was deleted. His fallback lap dumped him to 18th ahead of only Zhou Guanyu, whose session was compromised when his front wing failed after running wide over the curbs.

Logan Sargeant did not qualify, having had his chassis commandeered by teammate Alex Albon on Friday night due to a lack of spares at Williams.

Full faith in Sargeant, but repairs uncertain before Suzuka – Vowles

Williams team principal James Vowles says he has full faith in Logan Sargeant despite giving his car to Alex Albon at the Australian Grand Prix, but cannot guarantee the team will have the second chassis repaired in time for the next race in Japan. …

Albon crashed in Friday practice in Melbourne and damaged his chassis to the point it couldn’t be repaired at the track, and is returning to the UK. Unusually at this point in the season, Williams does not yet have a spare chassis manufactured, so the decision was taken to give Sargeant’s car to Albon and withdraw the American from the rest of the race weekend. However, Vowles insists it doesn’t show a lack of faith in Sargeant.

“No, I don’t think that’s the case,” Vowles said. “The fact I re-signed him shows you I have faith in him. This year I think you’ve seen he’s been closer to Alex than before.

“However, I have one car, and just one car. There are five very fast teams taking up those top ten positions and there’s no points apart from if you’re in the top ten. There’s one point separating the bottom five teams at the moment, so every point will make a difference between now and the end of the year.

“In that regard, you therefore put your money on the driver who this year has been slightly ahead of the other one, which is Alex. So I’ve reset everything. Taken a view from Bahrain, taken a view from Saudi and taken a view from here which of the two drivers was more likely to score a point.”

Explaining how Williams ended up without a spare chassis even at the third round of the season, Vowles admits it’s due to the changes he is trying to implement in the team.

[lawrence-auto-related count=3 category=1388]

“When I started in February last year, the plan was to have three chassis at round one. As we went through large changes in organization, adding performance and technology changes on the back end and processes, we started to push out fundamentally certain elements of things.

“There’s a finite amount of resources and, as we were going through an inefficient structure and making transformation at the same time, we started to cause problems. Those problems, before, could have translated to adding metal components or adding last year’s rear wings.

“In this particular case, the third chassis started to get delayed and delayed and delayed, and I think one of the things were were transparent about both in Bahrain but also on the BBC podcast that we did, we were very late with these cars — very, very late. We pushed everything to the absolute limit.

“The fallout of that is we didn’t have a spare chassis. Even then it was intended to be coming here at round three, but it got delayed and delayed again as other items got pushed back as a result.

“Without doubt, if we go back to root cause, it’s the fact that we’ve added significant processes. We’ve completely changed how we make a chassis. I think I described it the other week in Bahrain that there’s almost 10 times the amount of parts in a chassis compared to last year.

“That’s a level of complexity that takes an organization to a new level. But the ramifications aren’t [that] the third chassis is any more difficult to make. We’ve already made two. It’s more that the knock-on effect from all the work that we’ve done that pushed everything very late has pushed everything else very late.”

When pushed on if he could guarantee that Williams would have the second chassis repaired in time for the Japanese Grand Prix in two weeks’ time — with the car set to return to the UK on Monday and the third chassis further delayed — Vowles admits there remains an element of uncertainty.

“Until the chassis is back in the UK and they’ve properly inspected it from not just photos that we have, and NDT (non-destructive testing) that we have here, but properly get into it, no one can give you 100 percent certitude.

“What I can tell you is based on the evidence that we have so far and the work that’s completed overnight, everything looks completely feasible. I’ve seen chassis in worse states come back from this. 100 percent is a difficult number to give you, and as a statistics man I wouldn’t say 100 percent, but I would say there is a very high probability it will all be fine.”

Leclerc paces Australian GP practice again on tricky tires

Charles Leclerc held the top spot in final practice ahead of Max Verstappen at the Australian Grand Prix. Leclerc set the fastest time of the weekend so far on the overcast and cool early Melbourne afternoon, lowering the benchmark to 1m16.714s with …

Charles Leclerc held the top spot in final practice ahead of Max Verstappen at the Australian Grand Prix.

Leclerc set the fastest time of the weekend so far on the overcast and cool early Melbourne afternoon, lowering the benchmark to 1m16.714s with a last-gasp lap after the checkered flag.

It was his second run on a set of the soft tires, which have proved difficult to master for most drivers at Albert Park.

The tires in use this weekend are the softest in the Pirelli range and one step softer than those used last year following complaints the tire supplier had been too conservative in 2023.

Verstappen notably struggled to get to grips with Pirelli’s softest compound, complaining late in the session that the rubber was moving around too much in the high-speed corners relative to the medium tire. It took him two cool-down laps and a late blast on a very used set of softs to string together a lap without suffering overheating, putting him just 0.02s behind Leclerc.

Sainz, who is still recovering from his appendectomy undertaken two weeks ago, had held top spot until the final flurry of laps but ended up third and 0.077s shy of his leading teammate.

[lawrence-auto-related count=3 category=1388]

Mercedes was much improved on Saturday morning after a night of analysis at the factory in Brackley. Lewis Hamilton in particular looked much happier in his W15, running 0.092s off the pace after what he described as his worst Friday of the year and despite early concerns about straight-line speed in the opening runs of the session.

Russell followed 0.08s further back in the sister car.

Fernando Alonso led Sergio Perez in sixth and seventh ahead of Oscar Piastri, the home favorite perpetually troubling the top of the time sheet after he “[stopped] being an idiot in turn 1,” allowing him to match the leaders in the first sector.

Lance Stroll led home Lando Norris in ninth and 10th, both more than 0.3s slower than their teammates.

Yuki Tsunoda led home a tight bottom half of the field separated by just 0.29s from 11th to 18th.

Valtteri Bottas followed in 12th ahead of Alex Albon, who was driving Logan Sargeant’s surrendered chassis after an overnight switch between teammates to keep the Thai driver in the grand prix.

Zhou Guanyu was 14th ahead of Esteban Ocon, Nico Hulkenberg, Kevin Magnussen and Daniel Ricciardo.

Pierre Gasly completed the order in 19th at 1.676s off the pace.

Sargeant is no longer taking part in the grand prix after the Williams team used his chassis to replace teammate Albon’s crashed one, having not manufactured a spare tub in time to ship to Melbourne.

Sargeant calls Melbourne withdrawal ‘hardest moment in my career’

Logan Sargeant describes having his entry sacrificed by Williams at the Australian Grand Prix as “the hardest moment I can remember in my career.” The American will not take part in the rest of the race weekend in Melbourne because Williams does not …

Logan Sargeant describes having his entry sacrificed by Williams at the Australian Grand Prix as “the hardest moment I can remember in my career.”

The American will not take part in the rest of the race weekend in Melbourne because Williams does not have a spare chassis, and Alex Albon’s crash in FP1 damaged his to the extent that it can’t be repaired away from the team’s factory. With just one usable chassis between two drivers, Williams made the decision to allow Albon (pictured at right, above, with Sargeant) to take over Sargeant’s car, leaving the 23-year-old to watch from the sidelines.

“This is the hardest moment I can remember in my career and it’s absolutely not easy,” Sargeant said. “I am, however, completely here for the team and will continue to contribute in any way that I can this weekend to maximize what we can do.”

[lawrence-auto-related count=3 category=1388]

Albon admits he is finding the situation tough himself, but says he needs to reset to try and repay Williams’ faith with a strong performance over the remainder of the weekend.

“I have to be totally honest and say that no driver would want to give up his seat,” Albon said. “I would never want anything like this to happen. Logan has always been a consummate professional and a team player from day one, and this won’t be an easy one for him to take.

“At this point, though, I cannot dwell on the situation and my only job now is to maximize our potential this weekend and work with the whole team to make sure we do the best job possible.”

Williams team principal James Vowles called it “unacceptable in modern day Formula 1 not to have a spare chassis” after seeing his team reduced to one car, with Williams behind on its car build over the winter as new processes and software were put in place.

Albon will not take a penalty for the Australian race as it stands, although any power unit component changes will only be confirmed when the car hits the track for the first time during FP3 on Saturday.

Williams situation ‘unacceptable in modern day Formula 1’ – Vowles

Williams team principal James Vowles says the situation that led to Alex Albon taking over Logan Sargeant’s car at the Australian Grand Prix is “unacceptable in modern day Formula 1,” but also a symptom of the circumstances the team is currently …

Albon crashed heavily in FP1 and sustained damage to his chassis that could not be repaired ahead of Saturday, but Williams does not have a spare and so has been left with one car for the rest of the race weekend. As a result, it has decided to withdraw Sargeant from the event so that Albon can take over his teammate’s car, and Vowles says the team should not have left itself in such a position.

“We are hugely disappointed that the damage sustained to the chassis has meant we need to withdraw it from the weekend,” Vowles said. “It’s unacceptable in modern day Formula 1 not to have a spare chassis, but it is a reflection of how behind we were in the winter period and an illustration of why we need to go through significant change in order to get ourselves in a better position for the future. As a result, we have had some very difficult decisions to make this afternoon.

“While Logan should not have to suffer from a mistake that he did not make, every race counts when the midfield is tighter than ever, so we have made the call based on our best potential to score points this weekend.

“This decision was not made lightly, and we cannot thank Logan enough for his graceful acceptance, demonstrating his dedication to the team; he is a true team player. This will prove a tough weekend for Williams, and this situation is not one that we will put ourselves in again.”

[lawrence-auto-related count=3 category=1388]

Albon scored 27 points for Williams last season as it finished seventh in the constructors’ championship, with Sargeant scoring one 10th place in his rookie year. Melbourne also saw an impressive qualifying performance from Albon last year as he lined up eighth on the grid, although a crash — at the same corner as Friday’s incident — when running sixth cost him a chance of significant points.

The damaged chassis will now be returned to Williams’ headquarters in Grove, UK, for repairs ahead of the Japanese Grand Prix at Suzuka in two weeks’ time.