Yuki Tsunoda endured a rough weekend in Madrid, finishing down in 14th place in what could potentially be his final Formula 1 start. This outing marked Tsunoda’s third appearance as a replacement for Liam Lawson, who had been drafted into Red Bull to deputise for the injured Isack Hadjar.
Coming into the weekend, Tsunoda had built solid momentum by taking P11 in the Dutch GP and scoring a point with P10 at Monza. Friday practice suggested more of the same when he secured eighth in FP2, while his team mate Arvid Lindblad showed the real potential of the VCARB 03 by finishing P4 before suffering a heavy crash.
Saturday qualifying, however, told a completely different story as Tsunoda slipped down to P15. He admitted after the session that things simply did not click, noting a total lack of pace and a frustrating absence of tyre grip that even made old tyres feel better than fresh ones.
That misfortune carried straight into the grand prix, where his race was effectively ruined at the very first corner after being hit hard on the left side by Carlos Sainz. The contact dropped him behind Alex Albon and Sergio Perez while inflicting heavy damage to his Racing Bulls machine.
“Pretty much the race was finished by that,” Tsunoda said after the flag. He noted that overtaking proved incredibly difficult around the venue despite maintaining a good pace advantage over the car ahead, resulting in a deeply pressurising afternoon.
Although the Racing Bulls machine held the speed to run faster than Perez, overtaking remained nearly impossible until Perez pitted under the VSC and cleared the road ahead. Once the track opened up, Tsunoda noted that his pace recovered significantly despite the heavy damage he was carrying.
At the chequered flag, he could only manage P14 on a day when team mate Arvid Lindblad crossed the line in P9. Reflecting on the weekend, Tsunoda pointed out that an unresolved issue from FP1 seemed to worsen progressively throughout the event, leaving him with plenty to review after a race where there was ultimately nothing more he could do.
