Yuki Tsunoda says his confidence level at the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix was not daunted by his crash late in Friday’s FP2.
The Red Bull driver was enjoying a competitive first day in Jeddah, almost matching Max Verstappen’s time in FP1 and then setting the sixth-fastest lap of FP2 despite struggling to get his tires in the right operating window. Although comfortable pushing the car over one lap, Tsunoda then made a strange mistake on his high fuel run to hit the inside wall at the final corner, breaking his steering and sending him into the outside barrier.
A costly moment for Yuki Tsunoda in FP2 😱#F1 #SaudiArabianGP pic.twitter.com/ofXpR5gG9q
— Formula 1 (@F1) April 18, 2025
“I just turned in too much and clipped the wall with the inside wheel and had damage,” Tsunoda said. “After that I had no control. Apologies to the team because the pace was looking good, so it’s a shame.
“Confidence level was pretty good. The last soft run was a bit compromised with the warmup and everything. So far pretty OK. I had limited time with the long run — which was caused by myself, so I can’t complain. I definitely would have wanted it to end in a nice way for sure.”
While Tsunoda was satisfied with his start to the weekend, teammate Verstappen was less so despite ending FP2 in a competitive third place, 0.28s adrift of the fastest time set by Lando Norris.
“Well, we tried some different things with the car, tried to find a different direction with the car,” Verstappen said. “We learned a lot from it but it’s still not where we want it to be. Personally I don’t really look at the gaps — at the end of the day you have to form your own feeling and what you feel in the car. Over one lap, it’s a bit better but the long runs were very tough for us.
“It’s different here [compared to Bahrain] because it’s a different track — grip levels are different, but also the setup is completely different. It’s hard to compare but it’s clear we want to be faster.
“I think one standout is McLaren being very competitive but from our side there is still quite a bit of work to do and things to understand.”
