Logan Sargeant was surprised by his collision with Nyck de Vries at the final standing restart of the Australian Grand Prix.
The Williams driver ran into the back of his AlphaTauri rival as they approached the first corner. Both skidded into the gravel trap. De Vries’ race ended there, while Sargeant continued to finish in 16th place.
The entire field switched to the soft tyres for the restart and Sargeant, unlike De Vries, had the benefit of a new set. He was therefore surprised to run into the back of his rival when he hit the brakes.
“The last restart was was pretty weird,” said Sargeant. “I felt like I braked [like] I did on the previous two starts,” he told the official F1 channel, “but it just seemed like nothing was up to temperature: brakes, tyres.
“I hit the pedal and it was immediate. Both fronts locked and there was nothing I could do from there.”
He apologised to De Vries for the collision. “Sorry to Nyck. I didn’t want to end the day like that. It was a tough enough day as it was. It was disappointing.”
The stewards did not investigate the collision, but did look into the two other incidents which happened at the restart. Carlos Sainz Jnr was penalised for colliding with Fernando Alonso, though both continued to take the chequered flag.
Pierre Gasly was also investigated after tangling with Esteban Ocon, which put both Alpine drivers out of the race. The stewards did investigate this incident, but chose not to penalise Gasly after deeming it was a “first lap incident”.
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2023 Australian Grand Prix
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