Williams says it opted to retire Logan Sargeant's car just two laps from the end of the Hungarian Grand Prix to avoid the American incurring further damage after his late spin in the race.
Sargerant, who had started his race last on the grid, was in 15th position and battling with Haas' Nico Hulkenberg ahaed and AlphaTauri's Yuki Tsunoda just behind with three laps to go.
But entering the Hungaroring's Turn 6 chicane, the Williams charger clipped the inside kerb and spun. Sargeant was able to recover and return to the pits where he expected a tyre change, but his team opted to call it a day and retire his car from the race.
The Williams rookie was nevertheless classified P18 while teammate Alex Albon concluded his day just outside the points in 11th place.
"All in all, I was happy with how the race was going," Sargeant recounted after the race.
"We had pretty decent pace today on a track that doesn't suit us and it is pretty promising to be honest.
"Alex was knocking on the door of points, and heading to Spa, which should be great track for us, it is appetizing and I am excited to get there.
"[The race] ended a bit unfortunately, I was just pushing as hard as I could to overtake Hulkenberg, clipped the sausage kerb, spun and destroyed the tyre, so we decided to stop there.
"It wasn't a bad day and there was nothing wrong with the car."
"It was a shame that Logan didn’t finish the race, but with a spin a few laps before the end, we opted to retire the car rather than risk further damage," explained Williams Head of Vehicle Performance Dave Robson.
"Until that point, he was having another strong day and he can continue his good form into Spa."
On the other side of the William garage, Albon was actually surprised that he had managed to finish as high as 11th on a track that clearly did not suit the British outfit's FW45.
"We came to this circuit knowing it would not suit us - I am very surprised," said the Anglo-Thai racer. .
"On Saturday, we qualified where the pace of the car was (16th), on Sunday we had a great strategy and then we just held off [cars behind].
"Clean air is so important around here and once I had clean air, even though I pitted so early, I had a lot of laps to bed the tyre in very slowly and not push it too hard."
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