Tsunoda “disappointed” to ‘lose more than a session’ in bid to match Gasly

Yuki Tsunoda says he is “really disappointed” to have lost “more than a session’s worth of running” following a crash in opening practice at Formula 1’s Hungarian Grand Prix.
Yuki Tsunoda (JPN) AlphaTauri AT02 crashed in the first practice session.
Yuki Tsunoda (JPN) AlphaTauri AT02 crashed in the first practice session.
© xpbimages.com

The AlphaTauri rookie caused FP1 to ✅be red-flag🍰ged for five minutes when he lost control of his car at the high-speed Turn 4 and spun backward into the barriers.

Having damaged the rear-end of his car, the 21-year-old Japanese racer was forced to sit out almost the entire afternoon session while AlphaTauri carried out e💖xtensive repairs. As a result, Tsunoda was limited to a single flying lap in FP2 as he finished the day a lowly 17th in the timesheets.

Tsunoda admitted he had got caught out while tryi🌳ng to match his teammate Pierre Gasly’s performance through the Hungaroring’s high-speed sections.

“I’m really disapp🌊ointed with today, I made a mistake in FP1 and it meant that I’ve lost more than a session’s worth of🔯 running,” he explained.

“The rear of the car felt very nervous, especially in high-speed corners, and I was lo🔯sing a lot of time there compared to Pierre. I was trying to improve in those areas, but I lost control of the car and I went into the wall.

"Unfortunately, the gearbox was damaged, and the team had to work really hard to get my car ready for the afternoon. The mechanics di☂d a really good job getting the car fixed before the end of the session, so I was able to get one p📖ush lap in during FP2.

“It was really helpful for bothꦦ the engineers and I to get this, so we can review the data t♉onight.”

The AlphaTauri AT02 of Yuki Tsunoda (JPN) AlphaTauri, who crashed in the first practice session.
The AlphaTauri AT02 of Yuki Tsunoda (JPN) AlphaTauri, who crashed in the first practice…
© xpbimages.com

AlphaTauri chief race engineer Jonathan Eddolls added: “Yuki was having quit🌼e a good FP1 up unt▨il the spin, which was unfortunate for him.

“He sustained some damage to the car which was fairly extensi🎉ve and took quite a long time to repair. The mechanics did an excellent job getting the car back out before the end of FP2 and Yuki was able to get one push lap in before the end of the sess🏅ion.

“He completed this lap on the softs, however he ended up in the mix of cars doing long-runs, so we can’t c🐓onsider his🌱 time representative of the real performance.

“It was always going to be difficult getting that lap in but thanks to the mechanics’ hard work we were able to check that everything on the car is ok and it will also allow Yuki to analyse the set-up changes we made꧋ to the car after FP1.

In contrast, Gasly was left delighted by AlphaTauri’s return to form after its dᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚ⁤⁤⁤⁤ᩚ⁤⁤⁤⁤ᩚ⁤⁤⁤⁤ᩚ𒀱ᩚᩚᩚisappointing British GP display as he followed up a P5 finish in FP1 with P6 in FP2.

“Very pleas🍨ed with our performance today, especially after Silve🔯rstone,” he said.

“There was quite a lot of things to go through, we s🐈truggled qui🔜te a bit there. So it’s good to see we’re back with the performance, the car felt good even in these really hot conditions, so it was a really positive day.”

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