Tsunoda still lacks "confidence in the car" despite the Montreal upgrades
Despite a raft of upgrades on his RB21, Red Bull driver Yuki Tsunoda claims that he still lacks "confidence in the car" after an up-and-down performance in qualifying for the Canadian Grand Prix.
Reigning champion Max Verstappen had a quiet opening day at Montreal. Although his car usually lacks overall performance on tracks that feature bumps and high kerbs, he displayed encouraging performance in the third and final practice session at Montreal.
The Dutchman then went on to fly in qualifying despite a recurrence of the heavy steering wheel issue he first experienced in FP1. He was right in the mix for pole in Q3 after opting for the mediums for his last run, and was only denied Mercedes rival George Russell, and will be therefore lining up second on the first row of the grid.
His team-mate Yuki Tsunoda had a difficult day in Montreal, as he lost plenty of running in final practice with a brake issue. Although he looked fairly competitive at the beginning of qualifying, his day was heavily compromised by an incident that occurred in final practice.
The Japanese driver was handed a 10-place grid drop for a red flag infringement in FP3, which was announced midway through Qualifying. Although he was able to make Q2, he failed to progress into the last qualifying segment and will start from the back of the field tomorrow.
Reflecting on another tough day, Tsunoda noted: “Tough day overall for us. We had an issue during FP3 so unfortunately we missed a lot of valuable running time during the final practice session.
"We brought some upgrades from yesterday and it was definitely a positive switch, I could feel more speed in the car and I have identified where I can improve on certain corners.
"I still feel like I haven’t had the time to build full confidence in the car, especially as the car behaviour was different than in FP2. I only had a few push laps with the changes before we had Qualifying, but The Team did a good job with the balance of the car. Considering the changes, P11 was a decent result and we only narrowly missed out on Q3.
Signing off with a word for his penalty, Tsunoda noted: "Unfortunately, the penalty from FP3 dropped us to P20. It was an unfortunate circumstance but it is what it is. I will do what I can tomorrow to make up positions during the race, but we were hoping to be in a better starting position than we are."
