The final stages of the qualifying session of the Mexican GP saw Yuki Tsunoda involuntary protagonist of the Red Bull patatrac. The Japanese driver, who will have to start from the back of the grid tomorrow due to the installation of the fourth power unit, entered Q3 in a convincing way and immediately found himself at ease with an unknown track.
In the final minutes of the session Tsunoda, who arrived in the second sector of the track, decided to go to the asphalt escape routes to avoid hindering the Red Bulls of Sergio Perez and Max Verstappen that arrived behind him, but the Mexican was drawn into deceit from the maneuver of the AlphaTauri driver and has completely mistaken the entry into the curve, also ending up off the trajectory.
The misunderstanding forced the marshals to display the yellow flags and this penalized Max Verstappen. The Dutchman, in fact, was forced to raise his foot thus accusing a delay of 3 tenths that he was no longer able to mend when he passed under the checkered flag.
Yuki Tsunoda, AlphaTauri AT02
Photo by: Zak Mauger / Motorsport Images
Max was thus forced to settle for the third reference of the day, but he did not fail to vent his anger via radio when he called an idiot to the pilot who caused the yellow flags to be displayed.
At the end of the session Tsunoda, interviewed by Sky Sport F1 HD microphones, was amazed to learn of Max’s anger and explained his version of the facts, underlining how it was Perez who made a mistake that perhaps became decisive in the fight for pole. .
“Did I cause problems for Max? I do not know what happened. I know what happened with Perez but I didn’t do anything wrong ”.
“I couldn’t disappear, in fact I tried and went outside but I couldn’t do anything more. If you watch the video of the on board you can see how it was Checo who made a mistake and lost control of the car ”.
In evaluating the qualifying session, and the disappointing result brought home by Red Bull, however, two factors cannot be ignored. The increase in asphalt temperatures and a problem with the rear wing on Verstappen’s car, which appeared a few minutes before the start of Q1, which unexpectedly complicated the plans for the Milton Keynes team.
If we analyze the best references obtained by Verstappen in Q2 and Q3, we can see how the Dutchman achieved a time of 1’16 ” 483 with medium tires in the second round and a time of 1’16 ” 225 with soft tires. in the third.
Obviously it was not only the chaos created by Tsunoda and Perez that made life difficult for the Dutchman and Yuki himself is aware of this.
“If I had another opportunity I would do the same thing. It’s really tough and I think I’ve done everything possible. I don’t think I influenced his performance ”.
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