Yuki Tsunoda says his confidence stage on the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix was not daunted by his crash late in Friday’s FP2.
The Pink 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 appropriate working window. Though comfy pushing the automotive over one lap, Tsunoda then made a wierd 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
— System 1 (@F1) April 18, 2025
“I simply turned in an excessive amount of and clipped the wall with the within wheel and had harm,” Tsunoda stated. “After that I had no management. Apologies to the crew as a result of the tempo was wanting good, so it’s a disgrace.
“Confidence stage was fairly good. The final delicate run was a bit compromised with the warmup and the whole lot. Thus far fairly OK. I had restricted time with the long term — which was attributable to myself, so I can’t complain. I undoubtedly 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.
“Nicely, we tried some various things with the automotive, tried to discover a completely different course with the automotive,” Verstappen stated. “We realized so much from it however it’s nonetheless not the place we wish it to be. Personally I don’t actually have a look at the gaps — on the finish of the day you need to type your personal feeling and what you are feeling within the automotive. Over one lap, it’s a bit higher however the lengthy runs have been very robust for us.
“It’s completely different right here [compared to Bahrain] as a result of it’s a unique observe — grip ranges are completely different, but additionally the setup is totally completely different. It’s laborious to check however it’s clear we need to be quicker.
“I feel one standout is McLaren being very aggressive however from our aspect there’s nonetheless fairly a bit of labor to do and issues to grasp.”
