Tsunoda rues floor damage for failing to score points at Monza

Having dropped down the order despite his promising starting position at Sunday's Italian Grand Prix, Yuki Tsunoda blamed floor damage for falling outside the points-paying positions.

Starting from pole, Verstappen had to cut across the first chicane to defend from Lando Noris off the line. As the Dutchman previously had experience with such situation, Red Bull asked him to give the position back to avoid any unnecessary penalties.

The Dutchman did not wait for long to overtake Norris with the help of DRS to be able to drive in clear air. From there he made serene progress, only losing the lead through the pit stop period. McLaren drivers stayed out mucu longer as they were waiting for a possible safety car intervention.

However, there was no interruption, and as soon as Norris and Oscar Piastri completed their stop, Verstappen regained the leas to claim his third Italian Grand Prix victory.

As for his team-mate Yuki Tsunoda, he started in the points and ran there in the early stages. However he then lost out to Andrea Kimi Antonelli. He pitted relatively early, and that saw him get caught in traffic.

Spending the majority of the second half of the Italian Grand Prix in a DRS train, Tsunoda failed to make it back to the points-paying positions.

Reflecting on his race at Monza, the Japanese driver added: "After such a positive start to the weekend it was very frustrating to have an incident that caused so much damage to the floor of my car, especially when I should have been fighting for the points.

"We had been so quick overall but as soon as I had the damage my pace just wasn’t there. On the positive side we were better in the short runs today and after Q2 yesterday I was really close to Max and I can see that we are making progress race by race.

"After a race like today you just have to pick yourself back up and look at the positives like the quali lap, of course I am disappointed but you have to keep fighting and believing in yourself.

"Max was given a new floor this weekend as well and I didn’t receive that upgrade, so I am happy that I was able to squeeze as much performance out of the car as I did for qualifying yesterday."

Signing off with a word for his targets for the remaining eight races, Tsunoda noted: "My focus is solely on the rest of the season at the moment and carrying on with the rate of progression that we have been making.

"I would also like to congratulate the Team and Max on the win today, it has been a while since we finished in P1 and is a great way to end the weekend as we head to Baku.”