Logan Sargeant (USA) Williams Racing. Formula 1 World Championship, Rd 20, Mexican Grand Prix, Saturday 28th October 2023. Mexico City, Mexico.
Logan Sargeant and Williams have been penalised for incidents during qualifying for Formula 1’s Mexico City Grand Prix, with all other drivers cleared.
Sargeant was issued a 10-place grid penalty after he was judged to have overtaken Yuki Tsunoda during a yellow flag period caused by a spinning Fernando Alonso.
Sargeant did not set a lap time during qualifying and was consequently set to start from last place anyway, effectively nullifying the sanction.
However he was handed two penalty points for the incident, bringing his rolling 12-month total up to six, which is halfway to a race suspension.
Williams was also penalised, in the form of a €20,000 fine, of which €10,000 is suspended, after the team conceded that it left its jack unattended in the pit box.
The piece of equipment was struck by AlphaTauri’s Tsunoda as he exited the garage.
Elsewhere Max Verstappen, George Russell and Fernando Alonso were all cleared after being investigated for impeding at pit exit.
There were separate incidents in which drivers were slow to leave the pit lane during the session.
“The Stewards consider that the entire set of incidents occurred as a direct result of the implementation of the minimum lap time between SC2 and SC1 which is designed (correctly so, in our view) to avoid dangerous backing-up of cars on the circuit during qualification,” read the stewards’ report.
“We note that there are contrary requirements on drivers in that they must respect the minimum time, they are attempting to create manageable gaps to cars in front, yet they are also required to avoid unnecessarily stopping at the pit exit or driving unnecessarily slowly.
“It was also particularly noted that the Race Director accepted that these contrary requirements exist. All parties including the Stewards are firmly of the view that it is better to have the potential of cars backing-up in the pit lane or at the pit exit, instead of the potentially dangerous situation of large speed differences on track.”
It was also outlined that a more beneficial long-term solution should be sought.
Lewis Hamilton was also cleared of allegedly failing to slow for yellow flags during Q1.
Keyword: Sargeant and Williams penalised as other drivers cleared