Tsunoda Lauds 'Superb' Car Post Seventh in Miami

Tsunoda commends his team’s car as RB F1 garners significant points in Miami.

Yuki Tsunoda delivered a strong qualifying performance, securing tenth place, and the RB F1 driver improved further during the race to finish seventh. Benefiting from a timely pit stop during the safety car, he managed to recover from a minor start error and scored valuable points, adding to those from the Sprint.

“I’m very happy, what a great job by the team!” Tsunoda exclaimed. “It has been an incredible week where we scored points in both races. We were expecting a good performance here, but what matters most is that we achieved it.”

“As a team, we stuck to our plan and made no mistakes today. As for myself, I’m generally pleased with my driving, even though I made a mistake at the start.”

“I reset and kept going, and especially in the last stint where I was driving alone, I pushed and managed to clock lap times similar to the cars ahead of me. The team has developed an excellent car, and I appreciate it a lot.”

Tsunoda commended the Faenza team for their progress and hopes to perform equally well at Imola in two weeks: “The pressure from the factory is incredible, and in the end, we were able to earn well-deserved points. We have made rapid progress since the start of the season, and I am looking forward to it.”

“The upcoming race at Imola is somewhat another home race for me, so I hope we can continue our pace and achieve a good result in front of our fans, especially for the people at the factory. Everyone is doing a fantastic job and we will definitely keep pushing!”

Ricciardo Pays for Poor Qualification

Daniel Ricciardo couldn’t fare better starting from 18th after a disappointing qualifying session. The Australian driver admits he could not have done better: “Before the race, you’re always optimistic, but yesterday’s qualifying hurt.”

“Unfortunately, I think it set the tone for today’s race. We were stuck in traffic during the race and simply weren’t fast enough to make our way through the pack.”

“When we were surrounded by other cars and battling with them, we struggled to use our pace compared to what we had done yesterday in the Sprint with clean air. Compared to the other cars, I think our setup was somewhat slower in straight-line speed. There was nothing I could do, and I was stuck behind them.”

“We will definitely look into this during our debriefing, but generally, we know we need to qualify better, as I did on Friday, which was also reflective of yesterday’s Sprint. On a positive note, the team leaves Miami very satisfied. I had a good qualifying and a good sprint on the previous days, and Yuki also scored points today.”

He also praised the day’s winner, his former teammate Lando Norris: “I’m also very happy for Lando, I send him all my congratulations; he’s a rival but also a friend. I know how talented he is and I knew it was only a matter of time before he claimed his first victory.”