Tsunoda reveals his incident with Antonelli forced him to revert to an older spec floor

As a result of his pit lane incident with Mercedes driver Andrea Kimi Antonelli, Red Bull driver Yuki Tsunoda has been forced to revert to an older spec floor for the rest of the season-closing Abu Dhabi Grand Prix weekend.

Verstappen ended up second in both Friday’s practice sessions behind his championship rival Lando Norris. The Briton’s benchmark in FP2 had indicated that McLaren might be out of reach for Red Bull, but the Milton Keynes-based outfit made some tweaks to the RB21 overnight which worked a treat for Verstappen.

The Dutchman looked strong in final practice, and made it through Q1 and Q2 using just the two sets of tyres to have two new sets of softs for Q3.

Verstappen then delivered a pair of sensation laps in the final qualifying segment, both of which would have been enough for pole position. On his first flying lap in Q3, he received a two from his team-mate Yuki Tsunoda, but he improved this benchmark on his second hot lap without any assistance.

As for the Japanese driver, he made an impressive job to work his way into the last qualifying segment despite using an older spec floor after his original part picked up damage as a result of his crash with Mercedes driver Andrea Kimi Antonelli in the pit lane.

“Because of the pit lane incident in FP3, we had to change back to the old floor on my car, which did compromise performance somewhat and was not ideal,” added Tsunoda.

“I knew it could be difficult to get through to Q3 but I was able to do that. I have been able to help Max and that was always the aim, I am proud of that today.

“I will try to support Max as much as possible tomorrow, that is my goal and my main focus. It might not be a straightforward strategy but if I can help Max to win a fifth Drivers’ Championship, then that is the priority. The top 10 looks very tight, so let’s see what I can do,” concluded the Japanese driver.
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