Yuki Tsunoda has voiced confusion after being eliminated in the first qualifying session of the Brazil Grand Prix sprint, as he is unsure about what went wrong during the session.
Tsunoda currently trails his Red Bull teammate Max Verstappen 22-0 in qualifying results. However, his performance in the previous race was promising, with a deficit of just 0.211 seconds in Mexico — the closest he had been all season.
During the Friday practice sessions in São Paulo, Tsunoda was eliminated in SQ1 with a gap of 0.717 seconds to Verstappen. This was a significant difference on a short track where lap times are typically very close. The Japanese driver finished in 18th place, only ahead of Esteban Ocon and Carlos Sainz, both of whom mentioned struggling with heavy traffic.
This poor performance came after a crash in FP1, which, although caused minimal damage, limited Tsunoda’s track time to 20 laps. Most other drivers completed between 26 and 37 laps during the session.
“I wouldn’t say it helped, but at the same time, how I ended up in P1 was pretty good,” Tsunoda said. “I still did enough short runs and long runs as well. The lap was pretty okay in qualifying, just what I’ve done. It’s mysterious. Just lack of grip, to be honest, overall. But the lap itself, I’m not really… I can’t really find now suddenly what I’m sort of [missing].”
Red Bull advisor Helmut Marko noted that the RB21 was noticeably lacking in downforce in the second sector, which is known for demanding high levels of aerodynamic performance. He also mentioned that the team had expected better from Tsunoda.
“But when the car is more difficult to drive, we’ve always seen that the gap to Max increases accordingly,” the Austrian explained.
Formula 1
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When asked about his expectations for Saturday, especially with the possibility of rain, Tsunoda responded: “Let’s see. Mixed conditions. I don’t want to really pray for rain or dry, but so far I have to find something in the car because I just don’t understand why.”