Despite his second appearance in Q3, Yuki Tsunoda was unable to display his race pace at the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix, having suffered a collision with his former team-mate Pierre Gasly.
There was a first-lap drama at the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix as former team mates Pierre Gasly and Yuki Tsunoda collided on the opening lap, with the incident prompting the Safety Car to come out as both hit the wall.
While Gasly was out of the running in the Alpine, Tsunoda managed to limp back to the pits but found himself at the back of the field. However, Red Bull mechanics investigated the back end of Tsunoda’s RB21, and came to the conclusion that the Japanese driver need to retire from the race due to the damage.
The stewards investigated the incident between the Alpine and the Red Bull driver, and decided against handing out a penalty as “no party [was] wholly or predominantly to blame.”
Explaining his collision with Gasly, Tsunoda was left to rue the crash as he missed out on gaining further experience with his new car which has been proved difficult to control and set up.
“It was really unfortunate to be involved in a racing incident so early in the race today. I was fully in control before the incident, Carlos was also right in front of me, and there was just nowhere for me to go as it happened at the tightest corner on this track. I did as much as I could to avoid any incidents, but then I unfortunately had rear wing damage and I couldn’t continue safely in the race.
“It’s painful to collide with anyone, especially Pierre as we are friends, and this was not ideal for either of us as at the end of the day we are fighting for points and success, and my goal is to achieve as much as possible every weekend.
“Every lap is very important to me and to learn something and to experience the car more, a shame that something like this happened at an early stage of the race.
“The positive from the weekend is that I feel like we have made progress, being in Q3 again, and I feel like my confidence is building more and more. Next we have some testing in the RB19 before Miami, and then I am excited to go again with the Team and hopefully have a better result and bring home some points,” concluded Tsunoda.
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