Tsunoda baffled by Q1 exit in F1 Brazil GP sprint

Yuki Tsunoda has expressed bewilderment following his Q1 exit in Brazil Grand Prix sprint qualifying, as he doesn’t understand what he did wrong.

Tsunoda is down 22-0 against Red Bull team-mate Max Verstappen in qualifying, but his performance at the previous round had been encouraging with a 0.211s deficit in Mexico – which was the second-closest he had been all year.

On Friday in Sao Paulo, Tsunoda was eliminated in SQ1 with a 0.717s gap to Verstappen – which is particularly substantial on a short track where lap times are usually extremely close. The Japanese took 18th position, only beating Esteban Ocon and Carlos Sainz, both of whom complained of overwhelming traffic.

This poor performance followed an FP1 crash, which admittedly caused little damage but still meant his track time in the sole practice session was down to 20 laps, with every other driver completing 26 to 37.

Yuki Tsunoda, Red Bull Racing Team

Photo by: Rudy Carezzevoli / Getty Images

“It wouldn't help, but at the same time, how I ended up in P1 was pretty good,” Tsunoda insisted. “I still did enough short runs, long runs as well.

“The lap was pretty okay in qualifying, just what I've done. It's mysterious. Just lack of grip, to be honest, overall. But the lap itself, I'm not really... I can't really find now suddenly what I'm sort of [missing].”

Red Bull advisor Helmut Marko explained that the RB21 was noticeably down in the downforce-demanding second sector, and added that the team expected better from Tsunoda.

“But, when the car is more difficult to drive, we've always seen that the gap to Max increases accordingly,” the Austrian pointed out.

Asked what he expected for Saturday with the threat of rain, Tsunoda replied: “Let's see. Mixed conditions. I don't want to really pray for rain or dry, but so far I have to find something in the car because I just don't understand why.”