Verstappen fastest

Japan practice: Sargeant crashes Albon’s car

Logan Sargeant was involved in another accident.

(Bild: twitter.com/@F1tutkumuz)

A letter of application for a cockpit next year looks different: Logan Sargeant crashed in the first practice session ahead of the Japanese Grand Prix - in his team-mate's car, of all things. World champion Max Verstappen, meanwhile, set the fastest lap.

In Suzuka, the Dutch Red Bull driver set a time of 1:30.056 minutes, 0.181 seconds ahead of his Mexican team-mate Sergio Pérez. Third place went to the Spaniard Carlos Sainz in the Ferrari.

Practice had to be interrupted after half an hour because the American Logan Sargeant in the Williams crashed into the track barrier after a driving error and clean-up work was subsequently necessary. "I'm okay," the 23-year-old radioed to his team. Sargeant last had to take a break at the race in Melbourne. Following an accident involving his team-mate, he had to hand over his car to Alex Albon. Albon's badly damaged chassis was taken out of service for the rest of the weekend after the practice crash in Australia. The financially strapped traditional racing team did not have a third chassis on site.

Bolide from Albon
At the first test of strength in Suzuka, Sargeant then drove Albon's repaired car from Melbourne, while Albon drove the chassis originally intended for Sargeant. The reason for this is that, according to Williams, it would not have been efficient to rebuild the racing chassis that Albon used in Melbourne for Sargeant for Suzuka.

The result of the first practice session in detail:

Ahead of the fourth race of the season on Sunday (7.00 a.m./in the sportkrone.at ticker), Verstappen leads the world championship standings with 51 points, just ahead of Ferrari driver Charles Leclerc (47) and Pérez (46). Verstappen did not finish the last race in Australia due to a technical defect, but is also the big favorite on the traditional track in Japan. He has won the Grand Prix in each of the last two years.

Marko: "I think we are doing well"
"I think we are doing well," said Red Bull motorsport consultant Helmut Marko in an interview with ORF. "We have made quite a few technical changes and we are satisfied for the first outing. Leclerc's long run was a bit irritating. Not irritating, but really fast! We'll have to see how much fuel he really has. But otherwise we are satisfied."

Nico Hülkenberg drove his Haas race car to 13th place. The 36-year-old Rhinelander also received a warning for crossing the white line at the pit exit to overtake a car.