Tsunoda blames miscommunication for his tough afternoon at Spa
On the back of a tough afternoon at Spa-Francorchamps, Red Bull driver Yuki Tsunoda was left to blame a "miscommunication," suggesting that it led to a badly timed pit stop at the Belgian Grand Prix.
Red Bull had opted for a skinny rear wing for the Sprint, and it proved a masterstroke. With better straight line speed than McLaren, Verstappen was able to overtake Oscar Piastri on the opening lap. From there, the Dutchman drove perfectly to keep the arguably faster McLarens at bay as he took the Sprint win.
However, the Dutch driver was left to rue his laps in the standard qualifying session after he was unable to split the McLaren, and got beaten by the Ferrari of Charles Leclerc as well.
With heavy rain forecast for the race, Red Bull elected to run Verstappen’s car with more downforce. However, it didn’t pay off as the majority of the grand prix was run in dry conditions.
Although Verstappen looked very competitive in the damp conditions in the opening stages of the race, he was unable to overtake Leclerc, finishing down in fourth spot.
His team-mate Yuki Tsunoda endured a difficult race on Sunday. The Japanese driver delivered his best qualifying performance at Red Bull on Saturday, but he spent the majority of race in traffic, and could not capitalize on a potential early switch from intermediates to slick tyres.
Reflecting on his tough weekend at Spa, Tsunoda said: “Today has been a bit of a rollercoaster, there was a misunderstanding between myself and the Team and they called me in a little bit late on the last corner.
"At that point I had passed the pit entry already which was unfortunate. I then tried my best to overtake Pierre but my straight line speed was no where and I didn’t have DRS.
"Overall a frustrating race and disappointing not to be in the points. There are definitely a couple of things that we can take away from the race and we will re-focus for Budapest next weekend.”
