Tsunoda satisfied despite multiple issues: 'Safety car was faster than my car'

16:30, 01 Sep

byMarnik Kok

While Max Verstappen finished on the podium at the Dutch GP, teammate Yuki Tsunoda had to drive another catch-up race. That caught up lightly, but moving from P12 to P9 was the most achievable according to the Japanese. He points to considerable bad luck in the race and problems with his Red Bull car.

"Not sure what I can do better than that," Tsunoda begins against the media present in Zandvoort, including GPblog.

"I felt like everything today was against me. First safety cut didn't help at all. And second safety cut as well. I mean, the people I was fighting with, you know, they ended up P5, P6," says the Japanese, who thus finished ninth in Zandvoort.

Tsunoda did manage a nice overtaking manoeuvre and could score points, but there was no more to it. "It was not even easy to even score points today. So, I mean, to be honest, normally P9, you don't feel special, but I think [it's] something that gives me confidence for the future and, yeah, today was not easy at all"

Problems with Tsunoda's Red Bull?

Issues with Red Bull car, probably the engine, resulted in another setback for Tsunoda. "Obviously I can't say specific details but yeah at some point the safety car was faster than my car," he says about the problems.

Nonetheless, he remains somewhat positive. "Our team did a fantastic job to minimize damage and obviously went much better but still there was something in the car that yeah it loses a lot of performance. And still, I was in P11, so yeah, it was a good execution for me," concludes Verstappen's teammate.