Tsunoda ‘could have done better’ in Bahrain despite P9 finish

For the first time this season, both Red Bull cars finished a Grand Prix within the points scoring positions, thanks to P9 and P6 finishes from Yuki Tsunoda and Max Verstappen respectively. However, Tsunoda still believes he could’ve managed much more.

credit: Red Bull content pool

Tsunodas’ weekend in Bahrain was one of an up and down nature, as he struggled to show any signs of competitiveness in early Practice and Qualifying sessions, however a solid Q2 lap was enough to put the Japanese driver firmly into the shootout for the top ten starting positions. This marked the first time this season that both Red Bull cars appeared in Q3, with Liam Lawson struggling to achieve such a performance, and Tsunoda eventually being the one to replace him.

During the race, Tsunoda would collide with the Williams of Carlos Sainz during Turn 1, damaging the latters’ side pod and in turn giving him an uphill battle from that point on.

However, after a safety car period and some overtakes, Tsunoda was able to get over the finish line and claim a ninth place finish, marking his first points for the team on his second outing, and the first set of points scored for the second Red Bull car as a whole.

“I’m happy for the first points,” Tsunoda told the media after the Grand Prix.

“It’s always the feeling that I could have done better. Especially this race, the pace was quite good and I could have done a slightly better job than this one and also the team could have done a slightly better job in terms of pit stop, I don’t know what happened there as well.”