Red Bull racing driver Yuki Tsunoda will start the 2025 Formula 1 Japanese Grand Prix from 14th place after he was eliminated in the second session of qualifying.
The home favourite looked on the pace from the start, after a decent showing in the free practice sessions, but he couldn’t set a lap time good enough to make Q3.
To make matters worse, the man he replaced this weekend, Liam Lawson, qualified just ahead of him and will start the Grand Prix from 13th.
It was still a decent showing from the Japanese racing driver, managing to reach Q2, a feat Lawson couldn’t manage in his opening two races.
In the first session, Tsunoda finished in seventh behind his team-mate Max Verstappen, who went on to clinch an unexpected pole position.
He was only 0.024s off the Dutchman’s lap time, but in Q2, he was just under half a second off from the four-time World Champion.
With the margins being so close this season, it was enough to knock him out of qualifying, but Tsunoda revealed afterwards how poor preparation cost him dearly.
“I just missed the window, I guess [in Q2],” he told media including Motorsport Week.
“I didn’t get to do the warm-up I wanted as [in the] previous runs.”
Tsunoda went on to add that a moment on his final lap also ruined his chances in qualifying.
“I had quite a big gust [of wind] in Turn 2, quite a big moment with that, unexpected,” he explained.
“I did start showing a good pace in Q1, and I feel like I have made progress in the past, so it’s still a process I’m learning.”
Tsunoda admits it ‘wasn’t enough in the end’ to reach Q3
In his first competitive session for the Milton Keynes-based squad, Tsunoda’s experience came through as he appeared to be on top of the tricky RB21.
But it got the better of him eventually, as pole-sitter Verstappen even admitted that there are still “clear issues” with the car in the post-qualifying drivers’ press conference.
Despite feeling like he was getting to grips with the car, Tsunoda conceded that it “just wasn’t enough” to progress in qualifying.
“Yeah, I finished Q2 with reading the whole textbook, finally, about the Red Bull [car],” he explained.
“I’m sure if I had one more run it [would have been] different, but it is what it is.
“I mean, here it’s always tricky in slow speed [corners].
“But slow speed, feels pretty good.
“But I don’t like at the same time this kind of direction in the set-up.
“At least I started to recognise it throughout the FP1 and throughout the free practices.
“Just wasn’t enough in the end.”
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