Sargeant apologises for 'painful' first lap error in Miami

Logan Sargeant has apologised to his Williams team for the error he made at the start of Sunday's Miami Grand Prix which effectively doomed any hopes he had of a decent race.

"It sucks. It was a mistake on that first lap that ruined our chances, so sorry to the team - but I’ll take it on the chin.”

It hadn't been the best weekend for the American rookie in his first home race since graduating to Formula 1 at the beginning of the season after strong run in last year's Formula 2 championship.

• Read also: Sargeant enjoyed start to F1 season but 'still a lot to learn'

He was in the bottom two in both of Friday's practice, session, and was dead last in qualifying meaning he started the race fro the back row of the grid.

But on the first lap after the lights went out, he ran into the back of Lance Stroll's Aston Martin at the turn 14-15 chicane and damaged his front wing, forcing him into an emergency pit stop for repairs.

“I put the car in a place I shouldn’t have in that second sector and took my front wing off,” Sargeant told the media in the paddock at the Miami International Autodrome on Sunday. “That ruined the race from there.”

It left him well off the main pack and well out of DRS range. With no accidents, safety cars or stoppages during the 57-lap race, he had no opportunity to catch up and ended a lap off the leaders by the chequered flag.

He managed to complete the full race despite needing to extend the life of his hard yres to their absolute limit due to the early stop.

"Once we went back out for the long stint on the hard tyre, I felt like I managed it quite well," he said. “I think 54 laps on the hard tyre in that last stint was not too bad.

"We were a bit conservative with the balance at the start, so I had to sort of persevere with that throughout that entire stint.

"The tyres were struggling by the end but that was to be expected. On a normal strategy our pace would’ve been pretty solid all things considered.

“I hate to see it go that way, but as a whole I still enjoyed the weekend and I’m not going to dwell on it, I’ll just move on."

Sargeant said it was a "painful" outcome to the race, which was held not far from where he grew up after being born in nearby Fort Lauderdale. Fortunately he will have two more home races later in the year in Austin and Vegas.

"Logan was ambitious on the opening lap and damaged his front wing in a minor contact with Lance," confirmed Dave Robson, head of vehicle performance at Williams who was looking on the bright side to how things had gone.

"We took the opportunity to pit him, change his wing and get into some free air. He had a lonely race from there but still showed some decent pace, despite some floor damage, during a very long stint on the hard tyre.

"He can still take a lot from today and can take that learning into a tricky triple-header, starting in Imola in two weeks’ time.

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