Qualifying at the F1 Abu Dhabi GP delivered one of the tightest sessions of the season, with Yuki Tsunoda narrowly scraping through each stage to ensure he could assist teammate Max Verstappen in the fight for pole position.
Floor damaged in a pitlane collision in FP3
Tsunoda’s qualifying challenge began even before Q1. Late in FP3, he was released into the pit lane at the same moment as Mercedes driver Kimi Antonelli, resulting in a minor collision between the two cars.
The incident damaged Tsunoda’s updated floor, forcing the team to revert to an older specification for qualifying, costing him performance.
“After the Antonelli collision, I had to revert back to the old floor, which, to be honest, cost my performance into qualifying.” He added, “So I kind of expected it would be a difficult qualifying to get through [to] Q3. Obviously, going to Q3 and helping Max was the baseline plan.”
The Japanese driver admitted he was worried about his chances of reaching Q3 to support Verstappen, but was ultimately reasonably satisfied with how he performed.
“But at the same time, I was a little bit worried about that, with that aspect. But at the same time, yeah, I mean, it ultimately made it through. Helped Max, which gave him a bit more confidence in the second set, which was reasonably happy with my job.”
Pressure to execute the tow perfectly
Tsunoda admitted that executing the tow during Q3 of the F1 Abu Dhabi GP Qualifying session was “very stressful,” given how precise the timing, positioning, and pace needed to be without compromising either driver. The coordination required, combined with the pressure of Q3’s limited window, added extra tension to an already high-stakes moment.
“No, zero. So I was very… I had more pressure, moments of pressure or, you know, stress when I helped him in the top because, like, couldn’t…Can’t be very close into Turn 5, you know, can’t be very far. So, yeah, it was very stressful, to be honest. But at least I was able to nail it and they gave me some compliments. So, yeah, I take it.”
The field was incredibly tight throughout qualifying. Tsunoda secured P15 in Q1 by finishing just 0.008s ahead of Lewis Hamilton, then claimed P10 in Q2 by edging Ollie Bearman by only 0.007s, with the top 15 cars separated by just 0.367s.
“Yeah, it was very, very tight. Ridiculous. But it’s always been, like, always tight.”
“And, I mean, with my pace, what I’ve shown last, I mean, five, six races against Max, it was always being close, but always missing out because of that very tight field. So, I mean, in the end, you can’t control that. So I was only focussing to that, adjusting to the floor and maximising performance, which was only focussing that.”
“And the moment I was a little bit scared with Q2, but I was able to make it through and I think reasonably happy with the balance. So, yeah, I think we did well as a team.”
Strategy heading into tomorrow’s race
Looking ahead to Sunday’s Grand Prix, Tsunoda made it clear he intends to support Verstappen’s championship fight, even if it means compromising his own race.
“Or you can pit him very early, I don’t know. Never know. But, yeah, I’ll do as much as I can to help him, he said. “Most likely would probably compromise my strategy, but with his position, how he ended up, there’s still a chance to get a championship. So I’ll do as much as I can. Yeah, let’s see.”
