Tsunoda reveals how a "gurney flap" led to his tough afternoon at the Hungarian GP
Following a series of pointless races in recent weeks, Red Bull driver Yuki Tsunoda endured another difficult weekend at the Hungaroring. The Japanese driver offered an explanation for his difficulties at the Mogyoród race.
Red Bull struggled for pace on the opening day of the Hungarian Grand Prix. While the Milton Keynes-based outfit often managed to turn the situation around come Saturday, Max Verstappen never look really competitive at the Hungaroring.
The Dutch driver qualified eighth on Saturday, but he immediately lost a place at the start of the race. Although he managed to regain the position, he got stuck behind an obdurate Gabriel Bortoleto.
Red Bull elected to call Verstappen in quite early to pursue an undercut manoeuvre, and he debated switching to a one-stop after rising to fifth. However, his early stop meant that he was unable to keep his tyre alive for so long, and had to stop for a second time. This late second stop dropped him down the order, and he was unable to work his way higher up than P9.
Following a tough qualifying session, his team-mate Yuki Tsunoda opted for a pit lane start, having received fresh power unit components. The Japanese driver spent most of his race caught in DRS trains, and he came home in a disappointing 17th place.
Reflecting on his tough race at the heavily-revamped Hungaroring, Tsunoda stated: "This weekend has been a tough one for the Team. We knew coming into today that it would be tricky to move up into the points, and once I had damage to the front wing our race was effectively over.
"The gurney flap fell off halfway through and that cost us a lot of pace and worsening grip, so we then lost the ability to make a positive strategy call that would benefit us. Looking back on the season so far I can feel pretty positive, we've made progress, especially since the new floor upgrades were brought to Spa.
"The gap with Max continues to close, it may not feel like we are getting there but on paper we are only 1/10th off his pace, I'm not sure many other drivers could get as close to him.
Signing off with a word for his plans for the coming weeks, Tsunoda stated: "I am heading straight to the factory tomorrow to go into the Sim, we need to investigate where we went wrong and put in some hard work over the summer break so that we don't start the next half of the season how we finished this one. It's frustrating but we will stay positive and bounce back stronger."
