Tsunoda rues lack of feeling on the soft tyres, but hails his car’s balance
On the back of a relatively competitive showing on the opening practice at the Monaco Grand Prix, Red Bull driver Yuki Tsunoda has conceded that he will try to figure out how to exploit the full potential of his RB21 on Pirelli’s soft tyres.
Imola race winner Max Verstappen looked very strong in the opening practice at the Monaco Grand Prix, ending up second quickest behind pace-setter Charles Leclerc.
However, the reigning champion was unable to go significantly quicker in the second one-hour session despite the track evolution which is usually fairly meaningful at Monte Carlo.
The Dutchman conceded that the Milton Keynes-based outfit “pushed the balance” for FP2 which meant that he “couldn’t attack the corner” as in the opening practice.
His team-mate Yuki Tsunoda looked off the pace in the opening session as he seemingly tried to regain some confidence following last weekend’s huge crash.
However, the Japanese driver picked up the pace in FP2 to end up in P11 only 0.004s back from his team-mate.
“As usual in Monaco, we had a bit of traffic in practice today but it’s the same for everyone and it is just a case of luck,” started Tsunoda. “In P1 we didn’t have much luck but fortunately in P2 we got more laps.
“It was alright today; I think I was really able to feel the limitation in the soft tyre but it is kind of similar to the limitations I felt in P1.”
Expanding on his issues, Tsunoda claimed that he was unable to extract the full potential of his RB21 on Pirelli’s softest compound.
“I just don’t feel much step from the soft, in terms of grip and that is what I am struggling with. I didn’t get much running on the medium to try that out, I got one lap and then with it was very interrupted with the red flag.
“We certainly made a step with the car from P1 to P2 but there are still some small things we need to squeeze out of the car and I need a couple of tenths more.
“We have shown there is some potential there so I just have to squeeze it out of myself, keep doing what I am doing, build up the pace and hopefully I can put it all together in Qualifying."
