Yuki Tsunoda had a challenging qualifying session at the F1 Dutch GP, finishing 12th after being eliminated in Q2. The Red Bull driver showed strong performance in practice but struggled to turn it into a competitive qualifying result. Over the three practice sessions, Tsunoda placed 16th in FP1, improved to 7th in FP2, and ended FP3 in 12th.
Confidence in the car
Despite the surprisingly low qualifying result compared to practice, Tsunoda expressed confidence in the car’s performance throughout the weekend.
“I was expecting more,” he revealed. “Honestly, the confidence I had in the car was pretty good. I was able to control the car more than ever any other Grand Prix, so it doesn’t really stack up with the feeling I had in the car and the uptime I always got,” he explained.
Tsunoda has struggled in the past with the RB21, so this weekend’s boost in confidence highlights improvement, even if the F1 Dutch GP qualifying result didn’t reflect it.
Strange gap
When asked about the gap between his strong practice sessions and the final qualifying result, Tsunoda admitted the difference was unusual.
“It was very strange. Yeah, very strange. Honestly, I didn’t have any mistakes. I was also working hard quite a lot to gain every single millisecond from every corner and also how I progressed with the engineers. I’m happy with it, but it didn’t show very much in the qualifying and lap time.”
Despite his efforts, he ended up the slowest of the four Red Bull/Racing Bulls drivers in qualifying, with Verstappen 3rd, Hadjar 4th, and Lawson 8th.
Positive outlook
Tsunoda also reflected on his overall confidence in both his driving and his collaboration with the team.
“It’s positive. Yeah, it’s quite positive. At least you know where I’m lacking and where I’m gaining. Yeah, I don’t know. Practice was pretty competitive with Max,” he admitted, noting that in FP2 he finished 7th while Verstappen was just ahead in 6th. “There’s always something. I gained some corners, I didn’t gain some corners. I have to check the lap time over data, but yeah, it doesn’t really stack up with what I was having previously and the lap time I was having.”
