As the first segment of qualifying came to an end Saturday at the Italian Grand Prix, Yuki Tsunoda was given the difficult news that he had been eliminated.
His response told the story.
“Yeah mate, it’s just so ridiculous,” griped Tsunoda over the radio. “It’s so difficult to drive. It’s so ridiculous.”
After being reminded “to keep it clean on the radio,” Tsunoda returned to the pits to offer his full debrief of his qualifying session.
“It was tough today. Yesterday we started pretty far off the pace, and then session by session we managed to close the gap towards the midfield, but unfortunately, it’s clearly not enough. I’m frustrated, there are some things unclear, so we need to understand what’s going on, as throughout the weekend we don’t have an easy car to drive,” described Tsunoda in the team’s post-session report. “I’m pretty happy with the lap I did in qualifying, but I think we’re still missing something, as generally this weekend I’m feeling a lack of pace. There are differences across the cars, so surely there are a lot of things to learn. I’ll do my best tomorrow.”
While Tsunoda was eliminated at the end of Q1 Daniel Ricciardo managed to advance into the second segment of qualifying, only to see his day end there. While Tsunoda is set to start 16th, Ricciardo will be up in 12th place when the lights go out at Monza.
But the veteran driver believes the tightness of the field — coupled with the uncertainty over what the hard compound will offer in race conditions — could allow for overtaking on Sunday.
“I’m quite happy with the lap today, I didn’t feel like we left much on the table. I knew after this morning it’d be tricky to get into Q3, so to get quite close to it in the end was good. Ultimately, I’m pleased with the lap and felt like we did all we could. Unfortunately, it wasn’t quite enough, but the field is really close,” described Ricciardo. “There’s a whole mix of cars from P8 to P20 realistically, and the fight for points will be on tomorrow. No one’s used the Hard yet so that’s unknown for the race. We’re close enough and if you do have pace, you can overtake here. I’m looking forward to making up places tomorrow.”
Visa Cash App RB F1 Team might need Ricciardo to pick up some spots tomorrow as their rival for sixth in the Formula 1 Constructors’ Championship, Haas, is set to see Nico Hülkenberg start up in the points, in tenth position. With VCARB holding a seven-point edge in that fight at the moment, every position — and point — matters.
