Yuki Tsunoda says his confidence degree on the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix was not daunted by his crash late in Friday’s FP2.
The Crimson Bull driver was having fun with a aggressive first day in Jeddah, nearly matching Max Verstappen’s time in FP1 after which setting the sixth-fastest lap of FP2 regardless of struggling to get his tires in the fitting working window. Though comfy pushing the automobile over one lap, Tsunoda then made an odd mistake on his excessive gasoline run to hit the within wall on the ultimate nook, breaking his steering and sending him into the skin barrier.
A pricey second for Yuki Tsunoda in FP2 😱#F1 #SaudiArabianGP pic.twitter.com/ofXpR5gG9q
— Method 1 (@F1) April 18, 2025
“I simply turned in an excessive amount of and clipped the wall with the within wheel and had injury,” Tsunoda mentioned. “After that I had no management. Apologies to the group as a result of the tempo was trying good, so it’s a disgrace.
“Confidence degree was fairly good. The final delicate run was a bit compromised with the warmup and the whole lot. Up to now fairly OK. I had restricted time with the long term — which was brought on by myself, so I can’t complain. I positively would have needed it to finish in a pleasant means for certain.”
Whereas Tsunoda was happy together with his begin to the weekend, teammate Verstappen was much less so regardless of ending FP2 in a aggressive third place, 0.28s adrift of the quickest time set by Lando Norris.
“Effectively, we tried some various things with the automobile, tried to discover a completely different course with the automobile,” Verstappen mentioned. “We realized loads from it however it’s nonetheless not the place we would like it to be. Personally I don’t actually have a look at the gaps — on the finish of the day you need to kind your individual feeling and what you’re feeling within the automobile. Over one lap, it’s a bit higher however the lengthy runs had been very robust for us.
“It’s completely different right here [compared to Bahrain] as a result of it’s a unique monitor — grip ranges are completely different, but additionally the setup is totally completely different. It’s exhausting to check however it’s clear we need to be sooner.
“I feel one standout is McLaren being very aggressive however from our facet there may be nonetheless fairly a bit of labor to do and issues to grasp.”
