Tsunoda apologises to AlphaTauri for "series of mistakes" after crash

Yuki Tsunoda says he was “pushing too much” when he crashed out of the first segment of Emilia-Romagna Grand Prix qualifying, consigning himself to starting last on the grid.

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The AlphaTauri driver had been 11th-fastest across the three practice sessions. He was on his first lap of Q1 when he lost control of his car at the Variante Alta chicane. The rear of the AT02 swung out at the exit and went rear-first into the barriers.

Q1 was red-flagged while Tsunoda’s car was recovered, exposing the extensive damage to the gearbox area and the rear wheels. Previous Electronic problem means Tsunoda is already on his second energy store and control electronics unit of the season.

“I was pushing too much on entry,” Tsunoda told Sky. “To be honest, until then the lap felt great actually. I think potentially it was easy to go through Q1 with one tyre [set].

“I was just too excited, for me there was a series of mistakes and I feel really sorry for the team to have the result today, and I’ll just drive my best tomorrow.”

Unless there are penalties for component changes on any of the other drivers, Tsunoda will start his second Formula 1 race from 20th place.

“Tomorrow is going to be maybe different conditions,” he said. “Its rain. Can happen anything, so just really [need to] put it all together and just don’t do the mistakes like today.”

Tsunoda said he wasn’t in any pain from the crash, but said the rear-end of his car “looks pretty bad”.

“I really hope the car is repaired properly for tomorrow. But yeah, just feel sorry for the team today.”

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