Yuki Tsunoda admitted he is concerned about whether he will be able to start from his grid position of tenth after he crashed heavily in Q3.
The RB driver brought out the red flag with just over two minutes remaining in the third and final stage of qualifying.Tsunoda ran wide at the exit of turn five and onto the newly-installed strip of grass designed to act as a track limits deterrent. However, Tsunoda’s RB appeared to be launched into the air when he hit the join between the grass strip and the asphalt, sending him into the outside barrier and causing severe damage to his car.
“I didn’t expect it,” Tsunoda admitted to the official F1 channel after qualifying. “I just ran wide there.
“I was comfortably within the track. I was on the limit, obviously, in Q3. Half of the tyre went on the grass, but with that kind of thing, it normally happens probably because it was wet, which kind of exaggerated it and I went wide. Until that corner – even turn five – that lap was great. So it’s a big shame.”
The session resumed over the final two minutes, with Tsunoda’s team mate Daniel Ricciardo the only driver able to improve at the chequered flag, dropping Tsunoda to tenth. He admits that he is concerned whether the damage to his car may leave him unable to start from tenth and force him to start from the pit lane instead.
“To be honest, I’m more worried more about the car rather than my body,” Tsunoda said. “So to be honest. Very big shame. I’m disappointed.
“I hope my car is good. Obviously I feel bad for the team. That lap was enough to probably be in a very good position.”
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Jere (@jerejj)
20th July 2024, 18:42
Totally a driver error & if a pit exit start proved inevitable, so be it.
uzsjgb (@uzsjgb)
20th July 2024, 19:17
One would have thought that with all the air time we got due to sausage kerbs that the FIA would have understood that putting launching ramps in the path of out of control cars is not the best idea.
Jere (@jerejj)
21st July 2024, 5:32
Sausage curb isn’t there, though, but got removed for the 2022 event, iirc.
Only Yas Marina’s T6-7 runoff area has one, while Monza’s opening chicane still has speed bumps, but otherwise nothing similar anywhere anymore.
Honda
21st July 2024, 3:33
Hopefully the car can be fixed like before and he can start at P10. The main problem was he hit some bump after astro turf which broke the suspension, after that he was just a passenger when he hit the barrier.
I do not understand this Ricciardo hype though, people have short memory. He is pretty good here and won a race with RBR in Hungary but I am not sure he was faster. Yuki was ahead by a tenth in first run in Q3 and then neither completed their 2nd run. He said he was on a good one before that mistake so we will never know. Ricciardo 3rd Q3 out of 13 attempts and it was Yuki’s 8th Q3 this year in comparison. If we include Sprints which most drivers do not take seriously. Sprint pole or win is not considered the same. Then out of 3SQ Ricciardo did make 1Q3 and 1Q1 exit. Yuki has only 3Q2 so far.