Tsunoda targets to build "up the confidence and trust in the car"

Having failed to score any points for the third consecutive race, Red Bull driver Yuki Tsunoda reckons that he is "focusing on building up the confidence and trust in the car."

Having fractionally missed out on pole position in qualifying, four-time F1 champion Max Verstappen started from P2 on the grid at Montreal.

The Dutchman had a great start, but he was unable to pick polesitter George Russell off, but kept a close watch on the Mercedes. Despite unning in the dirty air, he was able to hang on to the Mercedes driver for the opening laps, but was unable to make a move.

Having suffered from higher than expected tyre degradation, Verstappen pitted early, but his second stint was not much better as he struggled to keep his rear tyres alive.

However, his final stint saw Verstappen fly, and he was able to get a bit closer to Russell, but he had to settle for second at the 70-lap Montreal race.

As for his team-mate Yuki Tsunoda, the Canadian Grand Prix was another race to forget. The Japanese driver started P18 after his ten-place grid drop penalty.

Although he elected to complete the race distance with a one-stop strategy, he couldn’t quite make it back to the top 10, to make it a run of three races without points.

Reflecting on his weekend at Montreal, the Japanese driver stated: “The pace felt okay today so we were able to make up some positions after starting in P18. On the medium tyre I was in more traffic and just couldn’t maximise in the dirty air, the safety car also was not at the best time for our race.

"It was at least a clean race after a messy day yesterday, and we made some improvements and upgrades to the car this weekend so we are going in a positive direction. This was the best we could achieve today, but I want more.

Signing off with a word for his targets for the coming races, Tsunoda said: "I’m looking forward to debriefing with the Team, resetting, and then going to Austria next as it is a track I really like.

"My focus is on building up the confidence and trust in the car and hopefully can get good results in Austria in front of a home crowd," concluded the Japanese driver.