Sargeant crashes heavily to trigger early red flag

Logan Sargeant's qualifying ended prematurely after a heavy crash at the final corner during Q1 at the Japanese Grand Prix. The American rookie has found his F1 future come under increasing pressure in recent weeks following an error-strewn season and finds himself the last driver aiming to secure his place on the grid next year following AlphaTauri's confirmation that Yuki Tsunoda and Daniel Ricciardo will return. Sargeant had been building a solid weekend performance at Suzuka, finishing final practice ahead of teammate Alex Albon and searching for a repeat performance in qualifying but wheel slip exiting the final chicane sent him onto the grass at high speed into the final right-hander and heavily into the barriers. Hefty damage was sustained to the Williams to leave a long repair job overnight in preparation for Sunday's race as qualifying was red flagged with less than 10 minutes expired. Both Ferraris were yet to set a lap time and will have been set back in terms of tyre allocation having been on track when the session was stopped.