Yuki Tsunoda had a tough weekend at the F1 São Paulo GP. He was handed two 10-second penalties after a collision with the Aston Martin driver, Lance Stroll. However, this wasn’t the only thing that took him out of the battle for points. The Japanese driver had an extra pit stop in which he served another 10-second penalty as the first one was not served correctly. Red Bull owned up to that error.
A series of misfortunes
Starting from P17, Tsunoda was running in 16th position when the race restarted on lap six after the safety car. While exiting turn 6 behind Alpine’s rookie Franco Colapinto, Tsunoda braked quite late to avoid the Argentinian. However, the Japanese driver’s late braking move resulted in him causing Lance Stroll to spin after tagging him.
Though Tsunoda stated that he did not receive major damage and did not notice tipping Stroll in the first place, stewards handed him a 10-second penalty. However, this was not the only misfortune the Japanese driver faced. Red Bull failed to serve the penalty properly, leading to another 10 seconds as a result.
“I think I had some damage. But, it was not so big, I would say.
“To be honest, I didn’t even notice the contact. Maybe I was just far off. I don’t know, I just have to review what happened to me, to be honest.”
A weekend that did not work out
Tsunoda described the contact he had with Stroll as simply shameful. He also mentioned having a good pace, especially at the last stint, which was the positive that could be extracted from the weekend. Nevertheless, the Japanese driver passed the chequered flag in 17th.
“Shame about the contact. But I think the pace was okay, especially in the last stint. I was completely out of position, so a shame.
“The pace was okay in this race. Just shame about the penalties and extra pit stop that was not in my control. A shame, because something worked well, but at the same time something didn’t work.
“For me, nothing worked at all this weekend.”
