F1 | Hungarian GP | "The whole day I struggled with the car balance" says Tsunoda afer best position finish in F1 at Hungary
With a provisional P6 that could become his best-ever F1 finish, Yuki Tsunoda spoke to the media and gave his debrief on what was a chaotic race in Hungary.
After having qualified P16 on Saturday ahead of Sunday’s race, Yuki Tsunoda and the lower half of the F1 grid found with a stroke of luck when Valtteri Bottas was the protagonist of a major incident that ended with three of the main competitors for the steps of the podium with an imminent DNF.
When the accident that took place in Turn 1 made a red flag and a new standing start inevitable, Tsunoda found himself up to P4 with 8 laps gone in Hungary’s heavy evening heat. The 21-years-old then fought and managed to end the race with a good final P7, including a 48-laps long stint with the hard compound.
The Japanese driver talked to the media after the race and he was very clear about the lack of stability on his AT02, even though his final P7 and provisional P6 could become his best-ever finish position in F1.
“I think in the end I managed to overtake but there’s also that big crash in the first lap into Turn 1, I was able to jump into P5 and after that, I think the pace was okay but the whole day I struggled with the car balance.”
“Especially to the end, I was struggling a lot. Just had to be patient on where the car turned and be stable how I did in the middle of the race. We have to really solve this problem,” he said.
The hectic race that took place at the Hungaroring saw both AlphaTauri drivers escalating one place in the final race result out of their checkered flag position, as a result of Sebastian Vettel’s disqualification resulting in Pierre Gasly achieving P5 and Tsunoda moving up to P6.
p5 & p6 🤜🤛
— Scuderia AlphaTauri (@AlphaTauriF1) August 1, 2021
noice. pic.twitter.com/qO3RkMQNaQ
“In the end, we as a team got P6, P7, some good points. So, from P16 we should be happy.”
“I want to rest. For me, it was the worst race week until the race so I have to analyze and try to work hard on what is the issue, and then we will be back at Spa.” The 21-years-old concluded.
The F1 2021 championship will be back after three weeks of summer break to resume with racing at the circuit of Spa-Francorchamps the weekend of August 29th. AlphaTauri now sits 6th on the constructors’ standings with 68 points, just 9 points behind Alpine.
