'Iced latte for Lando': How Tsunoda pulled off 'perfect' lap for fifth

For a moment, Williams appeared to have produced the surprise of qualifying when Alexander Albon crossed the line to take fifth place off the Ferrari drivers.

But seconds later Yuki Tsunoda produced an even better lap to snatch fifth from his rival.

Racing director Alan Permane was thrilled with their driver’s performance. “Just brilliant,” he said, “a simply perfect lap in Q3.”

Tsunoda could hardly have dreamed of a better result in the first qualifying session after Red Bull overlooked him for promotion to their team. That seat went to Liam Lawson instead – who was eliminated in the first round today.

Racing Bulls had demonstrated their pace on the soft tyres in second practice 24 hours earlier. But that session was held in much cooler conditions.

Come qualifying, many teams found it challenging to keep their tyres in good shape until the end of the lap. But as the afternoon wore on and the track began to cool, the conditions came to them.

Tsunoda produced a solid ‘banker’ lap with his first run in Q3. It wasn’t quite enough to put him ahead of Albon, but he beat Lewis Hamilton’s Ferrari by less than a tenth of a second, as well as the other Williams of Carlos Sainz Jnr. That put him sixth, though with Lando Norris losing his first lap time due to a track limits infringement, Tsunoda could realistically expect to slip to seventh, potentially eighth if Hamilton also improved.

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But the luxury of having a solid time on the table meant Racing Bulls could be aggressive with their track positioning. They arranged for Tsunoda to be the last driver to set a flying lap, meaning he potentially stood to benefit most from the improving track conditions.

Leclerc asked too much of his Ferrari, littering his final lap with errors, and peeled into the pits. Hamilton found time, posting a 1’15.973, though he couldn’t replicate his Q2 time. Sure enough, Norris did improve, dropping Tsunoda to a provisional seventh.

Tsunoda opened his lap beautifully, the 02 responding accurately to his sharp steering inputs, and taking generous but judicious helpings of exit kerb at turns two and four. He picked up more than a tenth of a second through his first sector.

Up ahead, Norris had completed his flying lap, and his race engineer Will Joseph warned him Tsunoda was approaching. “Keep an eye on Tsunoda, turn three,” he advised as Norris rounded turn five. The McLaren driver sped up to avoid risking a penalty for impeding.

“Tsunoda, five [seconds],” said Joseph as Norris came out of turn six. He hung left in the sweeping bends which followed and Tsunoda slotted into his slipstream, pulling out at the last second. As he approached the second intermediate timing line his final two mini-sectors went purple and he gained another tenth.

The benefit of Norris’s tow was lost after he scrubbed off speed for turn nine. But that made his run through the final sector – where he gained almost three tenths of a second compared to his previous lap – even more impressive.

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All day the two tight, slow bends of turn 11 and 13 had caught out drivers who had been greedy with their tyres. Tsunoda hit his apexes squarely and came off the corners well. He flashed across the line to set a 1’15.670, which catapulted him past the Ferraris and Albon for fifth on the grid.

“Yes, yes, haha!” exclaimed his race engineer Ernesto Desiderio. “That is an amazing lap, man. P5!”

“Let’s go!” exclaimed Tsunoda, who credited a pre-qualifying coffee for his performance. “Woo! Told you, iced latte’s working, baby. Iced latte.”

Team principal Laurent Mekies added his congratulations. “That’s the way to start the season, Yuki. Very, very proud. What a step – what another step. Well done, mate.”

“Thanks guys,” Tsunoda replied. “Well done for the hard push all the off-season. Car is definitely getting better.”

As he returned to the pits he added: “Maybe we have to give shit to Lando as well, it was a nice tow.”

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“Yeah I saw that,” Desiderio replied. “That was very nice from him. We’ll give him an ice coffee as well.”

But however grateful they were for Norris’s help, this was an excellent lap by Tsunoda in its own right. Without the tow from the McLaren he may not have had quite enough to beat Albon and Leclerc – but his superb run through the rest of the lap ensured he was able to take full advantage of his good fortune.