Yuki Tsunoda victim of a timing error by Red Bull: "It's quite shocking"

Yuki tsunoda will start the United States Grand Prix Sprint Race from the 18th^e position in Austin this Saturday. The Red Bull driver came away extremely frustrated from a poorly orchestrated Sprint qualifying session by the Austrian team. A situation all the more frustrating as his Dutch teammate, Max Verstappen, for his part signed the pole position. The driver n°22 thus points the finger at a timing error of the formation of Milton Keynes.

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Yuki Tsunoda in incomprehension

« I don't know [what happened]. We need to look into the situation., notes Yuki Tsunoda. It's very frustrating... it's not in my control. We can control it, but it's more up to them than me to manage the times. It's quite shocking. " insists the native of Sagamihara (Japan).

With a shorter qualifying session for the Sprint than for the Grand Prix, time management becomes even more critical, especially as drivers often deliberately wait in the pit lane to avoid the dirty air generated by the cars already on the circuit. It's more that the timing of the garage release wasn't even close, Max Verstappen's teammate is indignant. Something went wrong, and I didn't get a chance to record a time, so that's a shame. »

The traffic jam in the pit lane turned into chaos, with drivers rushing onto the track to cross the finish line before the clock reached 00:00. In the crush, Liam Lawson came dangerously close to the car of Yuki Tsunoda in the second corner, further annoying the Japanese driver. Nothing surprising coming from him., Tsunoda exasperated. I didn't expect anything else from him, to be honest."

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Red Bull apologizes

Red Bull team principal Laurent Mekies takes responsibility for this misstep. We were wrong, the Frenchman admits to Sky Sports F1. We apologized to Yuki. The schedule was a bit too tight. We had to choose between staying out and cooling the car on the track, or going back in and trying to cool it down better in the garage." An error of judgment on the part of the Milton Keynes team will therefore have cost the Japanese dearly. We thought we'd have time to get back to the garage and get going again, but only a few cars made it, and we missed the boat. We owe Yuki an apology. » reiterates Laurent Mekies.

Join us at 19:00 PM for the Sprint Race and find out if Tsunoda can come back and score points despite the challenges. Follow the live coverage on AUTOhebdo.