Series of problems for Yuki Tsunoda in Sprint qualifying
Yuki Tsunoda was eliminated from SQ1 in qualifying for the Sprint race. Both his attempts were thwarted.
Once again, the second Red Bull was eliminated in the first part of qualifying while Max Verstappen comfortably secured fourth place. This time, Yuki Tsunoda qualified in 18th position.
Obviously, the Japanese driver couldn’t hide his disappointment at the end of the session as his first attempt was hindered by the traffic on the track: « Today has been a disappointing day for me. Many cars cost me my first lap. In the last corner, I had a big lock-up and I couldn’t make a good lap. To be honest, this lap was already off to a bad start from the first corner because of the traffic ahead, and I couldn’t do a clean lap. »
Already in the red zone after this first attempt, Max Verstappen’s new teammate had to have a much better attempt to escape the cut. However, a communication error in the pit made him leave too late: I knew it was going to be tight for the second stint but there wasn’t much I could do about it. There was a car in front of me and I can’t go too fast on the out lap. We were held back in the garage. These kinds of things happen, but we know we need to work on our communication as well.
With points awarded only to the top eight in the Sprint, the Japanese driver has little hope of scoring any during the Sprint race. Therefore, we can imagine that Red Bull will use this race as a full-scale practice session and might be tempted to test an alternate tire strategy to gather valuable information for the main race.
From our special correspondent in Miami
