Logan Sargeant accused two of his Formula 1 rivals of "playing games" as he blamed them for his crash in the Saturday shootout in Baku.
The American set a time quick enough to reach SQ2 along with his team-mate Alex Albon. But he never got the chance to build on that as he lost control of his Williams and smashed it into the wall on the exit of Turn 15.
Sargeant was pushing hard on his final flying lap of that part of the session to try to cement his place in the next part of qualifying for the Sprint. But, distracted by the two Ferrari cars ahead of him, he lost control and caused a lot of damage to his car.
Carlos Sainz and Charles Leclerc ahead of him were preparing for their final runs in that part of the session with the Spaniard backing off to leave space in front of him. And Sargeant did not hesitate to point his finger at the Ferrari pair as he faced the TV cameras while still smarting from the crash.
"It was a good session to that point. The car had good pace and I was on another really good lap," said the Floridian. "But when two cars want to play games on the hardest corner of the track, it makes my life extremely difficult.
"Obviously, it's my job to not put it in the wall so I'm sorry to the team for that, and for the damage I caused. But I feel like the people in front of me could have helped me out a little bit. It was pretty heavy so a lot of work for the boys. I feel bad about that. I know they will be working as hard as they can and I'll keep looking at what I can do better."
"We have a really quick car. It's a positive but at the same time for me its' disappointing because I really felt comfortable today and I felt like we had really good speed. To end it like that is pretty bad."
To make matters worse for Sargeant, despite the team's best efforts, the mechanics were not able to fully repair the car in time for the Sprint. It means his only chance this weekend of breaking his Formula 1 points duck will be in the main race on Sunday, for which he starts 15th.
In better news for Williams, Sargeant's team-mate Albon was flying throughout the shootout and will start the Sprint seventh, well-placed for points. Both of them are also in a decent position for a top-10 push in the main Grand Prix.
