A very unhappy Yuki Tsunoda has reacted to the fact he will start the F1 Canadian GP at the back of the grid as he picked up a 10-place grid penalty for Sunday’s race.
In FP3 the Japanese driver overtook Oscar Piastri under red flag conditions. While this would normally be a slam dunk decision, it was complicated by the fact that the Red Bull driver passed a wounded McLaren. The world championship leader hit the Wall of Champions on his flying lap.
As Piastri limped back to the pits with a broken wheel rim and was dropping little bits of debris, Tsunoda caught up and overtook him on the back straight at 171kph.
However, the stewards did not show any leeway and decided that Yuki Tsunoda would get a 10-place grid penalty like Ollie Bearman in Monaco.
Yuki Tsunoda talks about overtaking Oscar Piastri under red flags in FP3 at the F1 Canadian GP
Speaking in the print media pen after going 11th fastest in Q2 before his penalty was applied, the Japanese driver was clearly puzzled by the severe penalty he picked up.
“Having the 10 place grid penalty, I’m not really sure I deserve that penalty in my opinion because I don’t know what they want me to do.
“Oscar [Piastri] had massive damage, spreading all the debris from last corner to the end of the lap.
“He was driving 80kph in the back straight, far left, which he did a good job to not spread, to avoid the collision with other drivers. And obviously I saw that Oscar was driving far left, and obviously I understand that under the red flag you can’t overtake, but waiting for Oscar to pit behind the damaged car is waiting for debris to hit me.”
Tsunoda concerned about the tyre popping up if he stayed behind Piastri
“And I saw the tyre was going sideways, I thought the tyre was going to fly away, and obviously I knew that, so I went far right, obviously I checked the car ahead of Oscar, car behind, myself, make sure there’s no one.
“I obviously went to overtake him with a sensible speed which was 170km per hour, half the speed of the speed that we normally drive, and I got a penalty.
“And 10 places is ridiculous for me. I don’t know what they want me to do, apparently they want me to stay behind Oscar to not overtake, but for me it’s just hoping that the debris won’t hit me.
“I don’t understand with this, especially the car having damage, driving very slow, I don’t think I deserve this, to be honest.”
