Yuki Tsunoda believes that his performance in the Las Vegas practice sessions demonstrates that he is on the right track in Formula 1. The driver pointed out that being ahead of Max Verstappen is a good indicator of his pace.
In the qualifying session in the City of Sin, the Japanese driver was eliminated in Q1 and started from the back of the pack. Later, Red Bull indicated that an incorrect tire pressure setting compromised his performance in the wet conditions.
However, in the first practice session, Yuki finished in third place, ahead of his teammate, the four-time champion – in the second practice session, he was only 15th, and the third session was inconclusive due to difficult conditions.
Therefore, Tsunoda felt that he is heading in the right direction, having been ahead of Max in certain situations.
“On several occasions – FP1, FP2, FP3 – on various laps, I was ahead of Max in terms of performance. I think this is something that I didn’t have before, and probably hadn’t seen in a long time. Obviously, one of his strong points is that he can take the car to his level, to another level in qualifying, which is his specialty,” he assessed.
“But I also had confidence in qualifying that I could have a better performance than on other race weekends, and these things happen. I think people noticed. But at the same time, what I want is a result – and obviously, the team does too. But we can’t keep pointing fingers at that mistake [in qualifying] and everything else. So, [we need to] fix that for Qatar.”
