Yuki Tsunoda takes blame for first Red Bull crash

Yuki Tsunoda has held his hands up for his crash during second practice at the F1 Saudi Arabian Grand Prix.

The Japanese driver, who was promoted to Red Bull to replace the struggling Liam Lawson just two races into the 2025 F1 season, clipped the inside wall at the final corner and was sent into the barriers on the outside.

It marked his first crash for Red Bull in just his third outing for the team since earning promotion from their sister Racing Bulls team.

Tsunoda took full responsibility for the accident, admitting it was simply his mistake.

"Just turning too much and clipped the inside wall and just had damage,” Tsunoda explained to F1TV.

"After that, just no control. Apologies to the team, things were looking good, so it's a shame.”

Tsunoda’s crash came during the race-simulation runs during the closing stages of the more representative FP2 in Jeddah.

Despite the accident, Tsunoda was encouragingly close to Red Bull teammate Max Verstappen, who was third fastest.

Tsunoda ended up sixth quickest, around four tenths behind Verstappen.

"The qualifying [simulation] lap was pretty good. I was a bit compromised with the [tyre] warm-up, but so far pretty okay,” he added.

"I had a limited time on the long run which I caused by myself [with the crash] so I can't really complain. It's not definitely not how I wanted to end up, that's for sure.

"The short runs are okay, I just compromised a bit with the warm-up, so there's a bit more [lap time] there.”

Yuki Tsunoda will ‘slap himself on the head’

Analysing the crash, Sky Sports F1’s Karun Chandhok said Tsunoda will be annoyed with himself.

"It's an annoying one. You slap yourself on the hand because you really shouldn't have done it,” Chandhok said.

Fellow Sky Sports F1 pundit Jamie Chadwick added: "He's going to be kicking himself.

“It's such a small and somewhat unnecessary mistake. He was not pushing that hard. It doesn't feel like he needed to make that error.”