Yuki Tsunoda said he made a “stupid mistake” after crashing out in the first round of qualifying for the Emilia-Romagna Grand Prix.
The session was red-flagged less than six minutes after it started when Tsunoda crashed shortly after beginning his first flying lap. The Red Bull driver was taken to the Medical Centre after climbing from the wreckage of his RB21 at Villeneuve corner.Tsunoda lost control of his car on the left-hand kerb on the way into the corner. The car spun around immediately and hit the barrier on the inside rear-first.
The Red Bull rode up onto the barrier and flipped upside-down as it did. The RB21 rolled back over as it landed back in the run-off area, having caused heavy damage to a tyre conveyor belt and a light panel.
“I’m okay, thankfully,” Tsunoda told the official F1 channel afterwards. “But at the same time, it’s very frustrating how I ended up [out] in such an early stage, especially in a very unnecessary situation.”
This is Tsunoda’s fifth weekend at Red Bull since he took over the car driven by Liam Lawson. He admitted he still isn’t entirely comfortable in the RB21.
“It’s kind of up and down,” he said. “Some sessions I feel okay, some sessions suddenly I’ve dropped a lot.”
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He went into qualifying after being over a second slower than team mate Max Verstappen in final practice.
“FP3 was to be honest a big mystery, how I ended up,” he said. “Obviously, the lap, [I wasn’t] able to put it all together, but at the same time it was pretty poor pace. We don’t know exactly why.
“We made a lot of changes and it felt pretty good in the first turn, turn two, turn three, and then I crashed immediately after. So it’s just a shame, I feel like the car was quite there and just put myself into the wall with such a stupid mistake.”
The session was red-flagged immediately. Red Bull told Verstappen “Yuki’s had an accident at turn five,” and reassured him his team mate was unhurt.
Lawson saw footage of the crash as he drove back to the pits under red flags. “Oh my God, I just saw the video,” he said on his radio, before also checking Tsunoda was unhurt.
The session resumed shortly after 4:20pm local time once the barrier repairs had been completed and Tsunoda’s car cleared away.
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2025 Emilia Romagna Grand Prix
- Antonelli was tiring from home race at Imola attention by Friday – Wolff
- Ferrari struggling to recreate set-up which “worked well” in Shanghai – Hamilton
- Verstappen told Red Bull to use Tsunoda before “hold him up” call
- ‘Saturdays have been mine for years but for some reason it’s drifted away’ – Norris
- “Plan C?”: Why McLaren only got their strategy right for one driver at Imola
HUHHII (@huhhii)
17th May 2025, 15:54
Wasn’t that huge. Tsunoda lost the control in relatively small speed. Barrel-rolling just made it look more spectacular
Esploratore (@esploratore1)
17th May 2025, 16:10
True, and safety in f1 really reached an impressive level, I think drivers come out unscatched, no matter how bad the crash is nowadays.
MichaelN
17th May 2025, 17:29
Zhou losing his roll bar in Silverstone was a massive lucky escape.
It’s great that F1 is now very safe, but staying vigilant is important.
uzsjgb (@uzsjgb)
17th May 2025, 16:24
Another one for my collection of gravel traps being ineffective and dangerous.
1. The gravel trap did nothing to slow down the car, on asphalt the car could have used its brakes.
2. As we so often see, the gravel trap and/or the grass verge at the end of it lifted the car and started the roll. Luckily this happened so close to the barriers, otherwise there would have been a good chance the car could have rolled over the barriers. In any case launching the car into the barriers caused much more damage than a slide on asphalt would have done.
P.S. Happy that this is the last race in Imola, no need for this artificial danger.
Alonslow
17th May 2025, 16:51
Right all races should be run on a flat 5km all tarmac and walls, and they should be on a rich Arab country or USA, how did you start following F1 in 1978 with all the artificial danger?
Leksa (@leksa)
17th May 2025, 16:56
Could not disagree more. We need more circuits like Imola, Suzuka and Zandvoort where mistakes are properly punished thanks to gravel and grass. Crashes are part of motorsport. No one likes circuits that are like parking lots with zero challenge.
grat
18th May 2025, 2:29
Imola punished Ratzenberger and Senna. Suzuka punished Bianchi. Is that what you meant?
The regulations are constantly being changed because F1 cars are “too safe” and “too easy to drive”. I maintained that this push which began in 2009 would eventually result in a dead driver, and 5 years later, that’s exactly what happened to Jules Bianchi.
We’ve got cars that can ONLY operate in a very narrow aerodynamic window, because hydraulics, electronics, and any other form of “driver aid” has been banned. Outside of that window, the cars are either slow, or uncontrollable.
So you want the tracks to be more dangerous as well?
Leksa (@leksa)
18th May 2025, 8:38
Please. What a poor straw man argument in trying to make me look a like bloodlust person. I only said that modern parking-lot tracks do not pose a challenge as there’s no risk of ending your session in case of a driver error.
It’s the challenge, not danger, why tracks like Suzuka or Imola provide excitement. Thanks modern cars, halo, and tecpro barriers, old-school circuits like Imola are not dangerous. Rolling is always preferable compared to direct hit, because it’s the sudden stop that hurts.
The danger lies on street circuits like Jeddah where a car on a hot lap may collide with a slow car on a cooldown lap, causing an airplane crash, or in fast corner where a spin may leave a car sideways and cause a serious t-bone accident. Compared to dangers of street circuits, Imola is a baby track.
Armchair Expert (@armchairexpert)
17th May 2025, 16:39
Seems like Imola won’t be the race when Tsunoda beats Max and ends up on the podium, as he himself said to the media after he got promoted to Red Bull for 10 million of Honda’s money. I’m sure it will happen next weekend though, or the next after that, or the next next…
Franky
17th May 2025, 16:51
Waiting to see F1 pundits firing Tsunoda (and Colapinto)
Esploratore (@esploratore1)
17th May 2025, 17:10
About colapinto, since doohan was replaced in part because of his constant crashes, he must surely be under pressure now, he was also crash prone at williams.
Esploratore (@esploratore1)
17th May 2025, 17:10
And tsunoda is not convincing overall, just like his predecessors at red bull.
Homerlovesbeer (@homerlovesbeer)
18th May 2025, 3:12
Bring back Lawson
joe jopling (@jop452)
17th May 2025, 17:17
Have said this before but Yuki is not the greatest driver..Shoukd not have been promoted(was a second off max before the crash…now he is under more pressure at RB and is more likely to crash..I hope this does not have a bad ending for him
Maho
17th May 2025, 17:33
I think the only option Red Bull has at this point is to clone Max, they seem unwilling to compromise the car design to accomodate both drivers.
SteveR (@stever)
17th May 2025, 17:46
Or maybe the drivers adapt to the car…..?
Alianora La Canta (@alianora-la-canta)
17th May 2025, 18:29
@stever That has been tried and has failed to such an extent that Max can’t fully adapt to the car any more either.
Homerlovesbeer (@homerlovesbeer)
18th May 2025, 3:14
Maybe the driver’s can’t adapt to the car due to being fired before they have a chance.