Tsunoda drops 9 tenths to Verstappen: 'I have to check what happened'

Yuki Tsunoda was brought in to replace Liam Lawson, with the goal of being closer to teammate Max Verstappen. Whilst the Japanese has delivered two Q3 appearances on the trot, the margins are bewildering still, Tsunoda notes.

Given the shape the Red Bull car has been in, with a start to the 2025 season marred with inconsistencies, Tsunoda's P8 qualifying result in Jeddah should not raise a single eyebrow. Yet when compared to Max Verstappen's pole position, it can't but do precisely that.

"I think the setup approach is quite different, which maybe, yeah, he has a bit more idea of how to operate this car," was Tsunoda's reasoning at the paddock of the Jeddah Corniche Circuit to media including GPblog.

The Japanese, much like the rest of the paddock, was also left at a loss for words by his teammate's pole positions lap.

"Maybe I just think too much about the session by session and trying to adapt the condition immediately. But maybe, like I can see from the lap time, I literally tried to get towards him."

"Initially in Q1 I wasn't that far. I had an OK lap but still I was three tenths behind. Just something that I can learn from this one day."

Tsunoda can't find answers to Max's Jeddah pole

Where is Tsunoda dropping the lap time? Is his tyre warm-up off? The RB21's complexity when pushed to its limits? The track temperature and the way it affects the tyres? Tsunoda, does not know.

"I just don't know if it's the warm-up or just the snap I had. I don't know why, I still have to check what happened there. Maybe because I feel too much comfortable with the setup I had in practice, which is when the track is in bad condition."

"When the track got better with this cooler temperature, maybe I have to think about starting [with] a bit more nervous and hard driving on the green track."

"Maybe Max, through qualifying, the condition was coming towards him. For me it was worse when the track got better and better, so that's a bit the difficult part."

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