Yuki Tsunoda owned up to the costly crash that ended his Free Practice 2 session prematurely in Jeddah. The Red Bull driver admitted it was a self-inflicted error, apologising to his team.
With less than nine minutes remaining on the clock in the second practice session, Tsunoda tagged the inside wall at the final hairpin. Ultimately, he damaged his track rod and sent him into the exit barrier. Though unhurt, the incident meant a significant overnight repair job for his mechanics.
“Just turning too much and clipped the inside wall and just had damage,” Tsunoda explained to F1 TV.
“After that, just no control. Apologies to the team, things were looking good, so it’s a shame.”
Tsunoda’s encouraging performance in FP2
Up until that point, Tsunoda had been putting together a strong session. He was sixth fastest, just seven tenths off the pace of McLaren’s Lando Norris and four tenths behind his world champion teammate Max Verstappen.
Tsunoda reiterated his confidence in himself and the car, emphasising his frustration at how things ended.
“I mean, the confidence level was pretty good,” he said.
“Last off run was a bit compromised with the warm-up and everything, but yeah, I mean so far pretty okay. I got limited time with the long run, which I caused by myself, so I can’t compare anything, but yeah, I definitely would have wanted to end it in a nice way for sure.”
Verstappen still searching for balance
On the other side of the garage, Max Verstappen finished third in FP2. However, the Dutch driver severely downplayed the result. Pointing out that the car still wasn’t performing to his liking over longer runs.
“We tried some different things with the car, trying to find maybe a different direction with it, and I think we learned a lot from it.”
“It’s still not where I want it to be.”
With both Verstappen and Tsunoda acknowledging that, whilst one-lap pace was slightly better, the long-run performance continued to be a challenge.
“Over one lap, it’s a bit better, but in the long runs they were very tough still for us.”
“The short runs are okay,” Tsunoda echoed. I just compromised a bit with the warm-up, so there’s a bit more [lap time] there.”
Jeddah, a different test to Bahrain
Bahrain was a challenging weekend for the Red Bull team, with the drivers struggling with low balance throughout the weekend. However, following the practice sessions, Jeddah seems to be a more competitive track for the team. However, Verstappen is treading with caution when making direct comparisons between the two tracks.
“Well, it’s different actually because it’s a different track and grip levels are different, but also the setup is completely different, so it’s very hard to compare.”
“But it’s still clear, of course, that we want to be faster.”
Red Bull vs. McLaren
Looking ahead to qualifying and the race, Verstappen remains wary of the growing gap between the field and McLaren. Oscar Piastri and Lando Norris are showing strong pace in practice yet again this season.
“It’s difficult to say really,” Verstappen admitted.
“I think one standout is, of course, again, McLaren being very competitive, but from our side, there’s still quite a bit of work to do and things to understand.”
