Tsunoda is at a loss for words after his qualifying disaster in Qatar
On the back of his stellar performance at the Qatar F1 Sprint, Red Bull driver Yuki Tsunoda was at a loss for words when he explained why his pace faded after the 100km dash.
Red Bull displayed a strong performance in the opening stages of the 19-lap sprint, with Max Verstappen and Yuki Tsunoda picking off the Aston Martin of Fernando Alonso at the start, but their performance faded as the race went on.
The duo still managed to pick up valuable points for the Milton Keynes-based team, albeit Verstappen lost some points to Norris in the championship fight.
Despite his strong performance in the sprint qualifying and the 100km dash, Tsunoda’s weekend took a negative spiral as he exited the main qualifying at the first time of asking.
Max Verstappen made Q3 in a car that finally looked more balanced, but he did not have the pace to fight with the McLarens for pole tonight. However, he still secured P3 on the grid which could be a good starting place for him to take on the fight against the McLaren drivers.
Commenting on his performance on Saturday, Tsunoda added: "Today was a mixed day, the Sprint was good for me and then Qualifying didn’t follow the same pattern. I got a good start in the Sprint, I could have maybe taken more risks but I wanted to keep the car safe.
"Max also got a good start and as a Team we were able to make it work and I could help Max out. I nearly lost out with the time penalty but I felt like I had a strong Sprint, with good pace.
Red Bull's Japanese driver was at a loss for words when he explained why his pace faded in the main qualifying session after the 100km dash.
"I don’t understand what then happened in Qualifying, we didn’t change much in the car, but I just didn’t have much grip and felt like I had lost the pace.
"My lap felt pretty tidy, probably tidier than yesterday, so I can’t fully explain what was different from Sprint Qualifying, it is very frustrating. I will do my best tomorrow and try to use the pace I had in the Sprint to overtake as much as possible."
