"It was my mistake," claims Tsunoda as he reflects on his disappointing day at Spielberg
Having endured a tough Sunday at the Austrian Grand Prix, Red Bull driver Yuki Tsunoda was left to rue his incidents with Lance Stroll and Franco Colapinto while he is also eager to find out his current struggles with his RB21.
Although Max Verstappen wasn’t quite able to take the top spot across practice, he looked fairly competitive in the third and final practice on Saturday.
However, the Dutchman was unable to challenge for top places in qualifying, complaining about the overall balance of his RB21. In Q3, the reigning champion appeared to be in contention for P5 on the grid, but he was forced to abort his final flying lap due to yellow flags brought out for a spin by Pierre Gasly.
Although Verstappen had been expected to bounce back from his disappointing result in qualifying, the Dutchman's race ended after just three corners. The reigning champion's Red Bull was tagged by the Mercedes of Andrea Kimi Antonelli at Turn 3, with the incident forcing Verstappen to retire from the action.
The incident left Yuki Tsunoda as the only Red Bull driver out there. The Japanese driver started from P18 after a disappointing qualifying session on Saturday.
Tsunoda collided with Stroll early on as he tried to barge past the Canadian, which the stewards decided was a racing incident. However, the Red Bull driver had another collision with Alpine's Franco Colapinto for which he received a 10-second time penalty.
The collision forced Tsunoda to pit for a new front wing, and the long stop dropped Tsunoda down the back of the field on a day where P10 looked possible.
Reflecting on his difficult race at the Red Bull Ring, Tsunoda noted: "Firstly, apologies to Franco the move on him was a bit unnecessary, it was my mistake and I am sorry to my Team for the damage that caused and the time it cost us.
"It has been a poor day, and I am not sure what I am doing wrong right now, it is hard to find the reason behind why I can’t get it right in this car. The one lap pace is getting better but in terms of long run pace, the tyres feel like they are degrading lap by lap and very quickly.
Tsunoda continued: "It feels like the track is chewing the tyres and it is really difficult to figure out why currently. I want to look through it with my Team and explore it more to find something different to do. I am really trying to get it right; I will look deeper into things and work harder to find the reasons.
"I need to focus on myself and want to improve. It is very frustrating, but I find myself in this situation and I have to resolve it myself. At the same time, I need to find the key to unlock the performance, whether it be technique or approach to this car."
