AlphaTauri looked set for a double-points finish at the Azerbaijan Grand Prix on Sunday afternoon. That was until Yuki Tsunoda's rear wing stopped working properly.

As he opened his DRS out of turn 2 after getting overtaken by Lewis Hamilton on the main straight, one side of the rear wing stayed down, whilst the other side with on it opened like normal.

Running P6 with half a rear wing until I was forced to pit so we could repair it. Still lots of positives we can take from this week and congrats to @PierreGASLY

Also I really appreciate seeing the flag flying from the balcony, it definitely gave me some extra energy

— 角田裕毅/Yuki Tsunoda (@yukitsunoda07) June 12, 2022

Eventually he received the black-and-orange flag and was forced to pit for repairs. It dropped him from P6 to out of the points. 

"I think it was just a DRS problem," Tsunoda told reporters after the race. 

"I didn't know what was the issue there, but hopefully there was enough of a reason to come back to the pits.

"I felt strange behaviour from the rear, maybe kind of related to the rear wing issue probably. Until then, the pace was still okay and quite pleased with what I did this weekend."

Asked if he knew what the issue actually was, the Japanese star admitted he wasn't told specifically what the problem was.

"They didn't tell me what was the issue there. I thought it's an engine issue, but yeah it was the rear wing.

“I was running okay pace. Until the race director gave me that black-and-orange flag, I could still drive.

“I know as a team you don’t want to take a risk, especially as we have the cost cap etcetera. But I hope this was enough reason to come back, to be honest. If it’s only those things, to be honest, we should take the risk to carry that car because I was able to [drive] and I was kind of the same pace as Vettel also.

"Until then, we had really strong positions as a team. I just have to stay positive and carry on like this for the next races."

Tsunoda agreed with his team's decision not to pit under the Virtual Safety Car when the Haas of Kevin Magnussen was getting recovered.

"Definitely the right call. There was pace definitely; I was fully controlled and the tyre status was good."

The Faenza-based squad looked set to score points with both cars in the same race first for the first time in 2022 until trouble struck for the 22-year-old.

While Tsunoda pointed to positives from the weekend, he feels he still hasn't had a completely clean weekend in 2022. 

"As a team we were running really strong. We were finally kind of able to put it altogether in qualifying. 

"Still, we need a clean race week. For me, I don't think I've achieved a clean race week yet. Lots of reliability issues coming out. 

"These kind of situations, I have to survive it, try to extract performance as much as possible and score points when I have the opportunity."

a Tsuper Tsunoda Tsend on the streets of Baku 🚀 @yukitsunoda07 pic.twitter.com/lNAMjpc7Ym

— Scuderia AlphaTauri (@AlphaTauriF1) June 14, 2022