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Sargeant and Williams handed penalties for pair of qualifying infringements in Mexico City
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Logan Sargeant has been handed a 10-place grid drop for the Mexico City Grand Prix following a yellow flag infringement – while his Williams team have also been handed a €20,000 fine for leaving equipment in the pit lane.
Sargeant failed to set a time in the first segment of qualifying at the Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez, having had a lap time deleted, before being caught out by traffic and yellow flags.
But although the American – who scored his first F1 points last time out in Austin – was permitted by the stewards to start the race despite the lack of lap time, he will be doing so with an academic 10-place grid drop hanging over him, as well as two penalty points, after he was judged to have passed the AlphaTauri of Yuki Tsunoda under those yellow flags.
“The driver of Car 2 [Sargeant] stated that he overtook Car 22 [Tsunoda] because he appeared to be going slowly and also because he saw the green panel ahead,” the stewards wrote in their judgement.
Qualifying Highlights: 2023 Mexico City Grand Prix
“The fact that a driver can see a green panel or flag ahead, does not mean that overtaking can occur in what is still a yellow flag zone. Overtaking can only occur after passing the green panel or flag. It was also noted that he did not make a sufficient reduction in speed.”
The infringement means that Sargeant has accrued six penalty points in the last 12 months.
Williams and Tsunoda were linked in a second incident, meanwhile, when the Japanese driver ran over a jack that Williams had left in the pit lane during qualifying. The stewards later handed a €20,000 fine to Williams, €10,000 of which they opted to suspend for a 12-month period.
Sargeant will now start the Mexico City Grand Prix in P20, alongside Tsunoda, who opted to change up his power unit and took a commensurate back-of-the-grid penalty.
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