Yuki Tsunoda crashed during the second free practice session at the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix, bringing out the red flag. The Japanese racer offered an immediate update on his health, confirming that he was “okay” on the radio. Tsunoda was pushing on his soft-compound tyre run when he clipped the inside wall on the entry into the final corner. This broke the left-front axle and caused him to lose steering, sending him careening towards the outside wall for a second impact.
The 24-year-old hopped onto the radio after the impact to declare himself “okay” before apologising to his engineers. The crash left debris scattered across the track and forced the marshals to throw the red flag. The FP2 session was eventually resumed with just over one minute left on the clock.
Discussing his crash in the media pen, he said: “I just turned in too much and clipped the inside wall and had damage. After that, [I had] just no control, so yeah, apologies to the team. Pace was looking good, so [it is a] shame.”
Asked about his confidence level ahead of the Saudi Arabian GP, Tsunoda continued: “I mean, the confidence level is pretty good. I mean, the last soft run was a bit compromised with the warm-up and everything, but so far, pretty okay. I mean, I got limited time with the long run, which I caused by myself, so I can’t really complain. I definitely wanted to end it in a nicer way, for sure.”
This incident was a blow to Tsunoda, who came into the weekend at the Jeddah Corniche Circuit in a buoyant mood. The Kanagawa-born racer was impressively close to team-mate Max Verstappen in Bahrain last time out, scoring a P9 finish to record his first points with the Red Bull team.
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