As for Sargeant, he was even more frustrated than his team mate, with no one to blame for his early exit than himself. With team boss James Vowles making no secret of the fact Williams are actively pursuing Sainz for next year, the American knows he needs some strong drivers if he is to stay in the sport. Instead, he recorded another point-less outing.
“It was tricky [conditions], obviously not the way I wanted it to go, just not good enough, too many mistakes. Two very punishing ones. For sure, very disappointed with myself after feeling like I was driving great this weekend so move on and just look ahead.
FACTS AND STATS: Verstappen secures Montreal hat-trick as Stroll surpasses Villeneuve’s home record
“I think the first one was obviously an excessive amount of water on track. [I] tried to make it work on the inters and just asked for a little bit too much on the brakes and that caused the first one. The second one was a little bit unexpected, just caught me out.”
Sargeant remains without a score so far this year, his best Grand Prix result P14 in Saudi Arabia, while this weekend Alpine leapfrogged Williams for eighth in the championship courtesy of their points haul in Montreal.