Logan Sargeant has vowed to “be quicker earlier” to avoid qualifying at the back of the grid after suffering the ignominy for his home grand prix in Miami.
The Williams driver will line up 20th for today’s race after the Florida native mistimed his run in Qualifying 1.
“I feel like we made a pretty good step there from FP3 to quali, just super fine margins,” Sargeant explained.
“It is what it is; move on. I think I probably had the two-tenths in it to get to Qualifying 2, but I did on the second push and I felt like the tyres were degrading at that point, so I just needed to do it a lot earlier.
“It’s still cool, even though it’s not the quali I wanted, but it’s been a cool weekend. It’s been fun getting to learn the track, even though it’s been a tricky one.”
Sargeant was eliminated in Q1 on a 1:28.577s, while team-mate Alex Albon progressed with a 1:28.234s.
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Albon will line up for the race 11th after improving to a 1:27.795s in Qualifying 2, demonstrating the potential of the Williams.
Heading into the race, the target for Sargeant in Miami is survival after crashes in both Australia and Azerbaijan.
Beyond that, it’s a case of the American taking the lessons onboard in what is only his fifth Formula 1 weekend.
“The first objective of the weekend is we definitely need to keep the car in one piece,” he confessed.
“Obviously not the result we want, not where we want to be starting, but from a personal point of view, that was my best session by quite a way,” he added.
“The feeling in the car was pretty good.
“Progression through the weekend, I think I need to be quicker earlier. I need to make those jumps and not leave myself so much to do going into qualifying.
“That’s something to work on.
“But at the same time, we needed to make sure we protected the cars yesterday.
“It’s just part of it, but I need to be quicker to pick up the pace.”
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