Why Red Bull’s Yuki Tsunoda was eliminated in SQ1 at Miami GP
Traffic and “poor communication” were cited as reasons for a disastrous qualifying effort.
Yuki Tsunoda was knocked out in the first leg of qualifying for the Miami Grand Prix sprint after failing to get across the line in time to start his final flying lap.
Tsunoda had posted a best time of 1m29.246s in a traffic-disrupted first run in qualifying, which left him in the danger zone as the clock ticked down to zero in SQ1.
The Red Bull driver should have had another chance at progressing into SQ2, but the chequered flag was waved just seconds before he reached the start/finish straight, preventing him from getting another lap on board.
His previous effort was only good enough for 18th on the grid on a day his teammate Max Verstappen qualified a strong fourth in the sister RB21.
Tsunoda revealed that Haas driver Oliver Bearman compromised his first flying lap in qualifying, which then left him on the back foot for the remainder of the session.
“Some intelligent car just came out from [the] pit and [I had to] abort my lap,” he said. “A lot of cars cost my lap quite a lot.
“First lap… yeah, to be honest, that’s it. In the last corner I had quite a lock-up, but to be honest the lap was pretty gone already from Turn 1 because of the car at the pit exit. Just [wasn’t] able to do a proper lap at all, so that’s it.”
Tsunoda was running behind Verstappen on track in the closing stages of the sprint qualifying on Friday.
However, as it became clear to Verstappen that he was safely heading into SQ2, he aborted his final run and dove into the pitlane, right in front of Tsunoda.
The Japanese driver blamed poor communication for his SQ1 exit, suggesting Red Bull could have done more to prioritise him in that situation.
“Yeah, I was [aware it was tight] but what do you want me to do, because there’s a car in front.
“Communication is pretty poor as well and, just in general, I didn’t [do] a proper Qualifying.”
Asked about his prospects for the sprint, he added: “It’s pretty far back.
“I’ll try my best obviously, anything can happen at this track. I keep positive and I’ll do my best.”
