A P17 finish in the 2024 Belgian GP
A mixture of Spa strategies on Sunday caused an unpredictable race
28 Jul 2024
3 min read
The soaking Spa-Francorchamps of Saturday morphed into a sun-filled circuit on Sunday for the 2024 Belgian GP.
A P18 finish in the race for Logan Sargeant turned into a P17 classification after the stewards disqualified George Russell.
Logan, who had qualified in P19, began from P18 after penalties for Yuki Tsunoda.
A poor getaway off the line meant it was an uphill battle from Lap 1 for Sarge, but he kept it clean to remain in the hunt.
After chasing Tsunoda in the first few laps, Logan took P19 as Zhou slowed to a crawl around the track.
The Sauber driver looked like he had recovered the car, but eventually retired, and there was one fewer name for Sarge to focus on.
Tsunoda continued to fill Logan's visor until a double-stack pit stop from Williams Racing changed the order.
Logan started his Sunday on Pirelli's Medium tires and took another set for his second stint, meaning he'd have to stop again before the chequered flag.
Logan makes his way to the grid.
A variety of stint lengths had the #2 car benefit from the undercut, but it put Logan on the back foot when others pitted for fresh rubber.
Lance Stroll, then Tsunoda kept Logan busy checking his mirrors, but his biggest fight of the day came against Kevin Magnussen as the race reached its halfway point.
An elbows-out push from the Haas driver on the exit of Les Combes had Logan needing to back out to avoid the gravel, but he kept his car undamaged.
After his final pit stop for the white-walled hard tire, Logan was 13s away from Nico Hulkenberg, who had attempted two undercuts during the race.
Sarge's final laps were all about managing his pace and closing in on the Haas driver to try and get a pass in before the flag.
There was no slowing for Logan, who kept his concentration up all race long, and he tore chunks out of Hulkenberg's advantage.
The two went battling in the closing laps, and Logan made a feisty DRS pass down the Kemmel Straight to take P18 on the penultimate tour.
With Russell's car being underweight, all the drivers received a one-place promotion, meaning Logan leaves Belgium with a P17 result.
"It wasn’t great today," admitted Logan when speaking after the race.
He continued to say: "I feel like the Hard tyres were solid and I was happy with the pace, but the first two Medium stints were pretty tricky and it wasn’t easy to drive.
"In my second Medium stint, I was trying to hold people up behind, which was ultimately helping Alex ahead, so I was trying to do my best in that sense.
"I think things could have looked a little different if we had a dry Qualifying, but now we will use the summer to reset."
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