Yuki Tsunoda believes he would have led the Brazilian Grand Prix had the security automotive and subsequent pink flags not been referred to as for at Interlagos.
The Japanese driver was one in every of a choose few to go for a swap to excessive moist tyres as rain pelted the Sao Paulo circuit, with he and team-mate Liam Lawson at one stage lapping sooner than these round them by nearly 5 seconds per lap.
However with others attempting to courageous it out on intermediates because the deluge obtained heavier, race management had no different aside from to ship the security automotive out on monitor, a neutralisation that turned a full red-flag stoppage as soon as Franco Colapinto had crashed his Williams catching as much as the pack after a pitstop.
Tsunoda, who was operating third earlier than his pitstop, misplaced out with F1’s guidelines permitting at no cost tyre modifications underneath pink flag situations and would finally end eighth on the highway – a outcome that was upgraded to seventh courtesy of a 10-second penalty for McLaren’s Oscar Piastri, who had earlier punted Lawson right into a spin at Flip 1.
“I believe what we did, switching to excessive, that was good,” defined Tsunoda.
“Simply the security automotive and the pink flag got here out, that was the purpose that went very down. If the pink flag did not come out, in all probability I might, in some unspecified time in the future, have overtaken numerous vehicles and perhaps [been] P1, but it surely simply did not come in the direction of us.”
Yuki Tsunoda, RB F1 Group VCARB 01
Photograph by: Purple Bull Content material Pool
Lawson additionally scored factors as RB locks right into a struggle for sixth within the constructors’ standings, albeit dropping floor to double podium-scoring Alpine.
Having careworn the significance of the outcome for the Faenza-based group, Tsunoda added: “It wasn’t simple situations. In the event you lose focus, [it can have] numerous consequence.
“I loved the final stint, good struggle with Oscar [Piastri]. I attempted to be inside 10 seconds. You understand, might have finished numerous issues fallacious, however saved it clear and tried to attain P7, which is sweet.”
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