Tsunoda highlights silver lining amid yet another Q1 elimination

08:47, 03 Aug

Updated: 09:34, 03 Aug

byTobia Elia

Yuki Tsunoda commented on his sixteenth-place finish in Hungarian GP qualifying, with the Japanese driver once again facing the task of fighting his way back through the field in what has been a challenging weekend so far for Red Bull.

Although the gap to his teammate was just a tenth this time, Yuki Tsunoda once again found himself eliminated in Q1. The Japanese driver will therefore start from 16th place in today’s race, and overtaking won’t be easy given the twisty nature of the Hungaroring circuit.

When asked by GPBlog what issue he faced during qualifying, Tsunoda commented: ''If we knew what was the problem, we would not be struggling like that much, so I don't know yet.''

Asked how difficult is to drive the car here, the Japanese added: ''I don't know. The car balance itself is not that bad, but just the grip level that the car is providing is very, very low. It's not the level that we normally feel.''

Yuki Tsunoda - Red Bull Contentpool

Tsunoda analyses Hungarian GP qualifying

Tsunoda felt pleased with the smaller gap to Max Verstappen compared to previous races, but remained dissatisfied with the overall result for the team: ''Throughout the week, I think there was a positive from our side of the garage that we consistently close the max.''

''Some sessions we were ahead, so some teams did take a positive but at the same time yeah it was not easy for us our team.''

Asked if the car felt better than the Friday sessions, Yuki added: ''Not really. I don't think we were able to fix the major issue and to be honest we changed something for FP3 and we were able to make a little bit of a back step with our side of the garage, which is some bit of an issue that we think we can avoid.''

''It was fully in our control and that's something that shouldn't happen. And definitely have to improve for the future because that kind of made us a bit crowded idea of what kind of power we were getting for qualifying, which is pretty frustrating.''

And about the gap from Verstappen: ''Obviously Max is max. Like I said, I was very close to Max throughout the week. Some sessions ahead and I noticed that some bits come from my side of the car.''

''I think obviously frustrating for missing out Q1 but also he was almost out as well so something that I can be proud of a little bit.''