{"id":207934,"date":"2025-10-18T03:14:07","date_gmt":"2025-10-18T03:14:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/207934\/"},"modified":"2025-10-18T03:14:07","modified_gmt":"2025-10-18T03:14:07","slug":"shocking-first-round-qualifying-exit-was-not-in-my-control-says-tsunoda-%c2%b7-racefans","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/207934\/","title":{"rendered":"“Shocking” first-round qualifying exit was “not in my control”, says Tsunoda \u00b7 RaceFans"},"content":{"rendered":"

Yuki Tsunoda<\/a> was frustrated to drop out of qualifying for the sprint race in the first round after being unable to set a time at the end of the session.<\/p>\n

Red Bull sent him out last at the end of SQ1 and he was one of several drivers who did not reach the timing line to start their lap before the chequered flag was waved.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe timing of the garage exit was, I think, not even close,\u201d Tsunoda told the official Formula 1 channel. \u201cI don\u2019t know what\u2019s happened there, to be honest. Something went wrong and we didn\u2019t have any opportunity to do a lap time so [it\u2019s a] shame.\u201d<\/p>\n

Tsunoda said there was nothing more he could have done to ensure he started his lap in time. \u201cIt\u2019s very frustrating because [\u2026] it\u2019s not in my control,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s not a thing I can control, to be honest. We can control it, but it was more up to them rather than myself, managing the timing. So it\u2019s pretty shocking.\u201d<\/p>\n

Tsunoda realised as he queued at the pit-lane exit that he was unlikely to be able to complete his final lap. He told race engineer Richard Wood: \u201cit\u2019s going to be fucking tight.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cYeah, you have to take position on-track,\u201d Wood replied. \u201cI\u2019m not sure we\u2019re going to make it,\u201d Tsunoda repeated. \u201cYou will make it,\u201d said Wood, \u201cjust take positions on-track.\u201d<\/p>\n

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However all of the drivers ahead of him were also trying to reach the timing line before the session ended so he was not able to overtake any of them.<\/p>\n

He left the pits immediately behind Liam Lawson<\/a>, the Racing Bulls driver who Tsunoda replaced at Red Bull after the second round of the season. Lawson made sure Tsunoda did not overtake him during the out-lap, which he was allowed to do, and the Racing Bulls driver was one of many others who failed to start their final laps on time.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s just more like his usual,\u201d said Tsunoda after the session, \u201cthere\u2019s nothing I expect more than that, to be honest, from him.\u201d<\/p>\n

Tsunoda lost more time on his out-lap as he had to slow down to let Charles Leclerc<\/a> through as the Ferrari driver completed a flying lap. The Red Bull driver was so far away from reaching the chequered flag in time the lights had already turned red as he reached the final corner.<\/p>\n

Red Bull team principal Laurent Mekies admitted the team \u201cowe Yuki an apology\u201d for his mis-timed final run.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe got it wrong, honestly,\u201d he told Sky. \u201cWe apologise to Yuki, the programme was a bit too tight.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was a choice between staying out and cooling down [the car] on-track, or trying to cool down a bit better in the garage. We thought we would have the time to come back into the garage and get out again, but it was only possible for a few cars to do that and we missed the cut.\u201d<\/p>\n

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2025 United States Grand Prix
\nBrowse all 2025 United States Grand Prix articles<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Yuki Tsunoda was frustrated to drop out of qualifying for the sprint race in the first round after…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":207935,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[36],"tags":[85917,1687,372,6537,101,56,54,55,7942],"class_list":["post-207934","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-f1","tag-2025-united-states-grand-prix","tag-f1","tag-formula-1","tag-formula1","tag-sports","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom","tag-yuki-tsunoda"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/207934","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=207934"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/207934\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/207935"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=207934"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=207934"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=207934"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}