Red Bull admits mistake after Tsunoda’s Q1 exit in Las Vegas

10:10, 22 Nov

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byKada Sarkozi

Laurent Mekies has held his hands up after Yuki Tsunoda's early exit in qualifying.

"Unfortunately, we got it wrong with Yuki. It’s on us."

- Laurent Mekies

Tsunoda once again faced early elimination, as the Japanese driver got knocked out in Q1 in a wet qualifying session in Las Vegas.

After the session, Red Bull Racing team principal Mekies explained that it was no fault of Tsunoda that he could not progress beyond the first session.

The Frenchman explained their mistake to Viaplay. He said: "Unfortunately, we got it wrong with Yuki. It’s on us.

He continued: "We made quite a big mistake on his tyre pressure settings and it gave him basically no chance to get any sort of grip out there. So it's on us.

"These sort of things should not happen, but they happen so we work hard to correct that, and for sure we apologize to him."

Tsunoda finished 19th in qualifying in Las Vegas - Photo: Red Bull Content Pool

Mekies praises Verstappen

While Tsunoda will line up in P19 provisionally on the grid, Max Verstappen will start from the front row alongside his championship rival Lando Norris.

The Frenchman when speaking about Verstappen's result: "I think Max did a brilliant job. Again, extremely difficult conditions out there. If we saw this morning was low grip in FP3, [in] qualifying [there was] just incredibly low grip.

"I think it was very, very close. We perhaps struggled a bit more in Q3 with the inters compared to our pace on extreme wet, but ultimately we are there or thereabouts to fight for pole. So, well done to Max, well done to the team."

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