Yuki Tsunoda accused Liam Lawson of deliberately impeding his flying laps in qualifying as he was eliminated in Q2 at the Formula 1 United States Grand Prix.
Tsunoda was quick to jump on the radio in Q2, accusing his former team-mate of disturbing him “on purpose” and “slowing down like hell” approaching Turn 11.
Both drivers missed out on a spot in Q3, with Lawson taking 12th place on the grid, while Tsunoda was 13th as Max Verstappen took pole in the sister Red Bull.
However, Tsunoda wasn’t ready to move on from the incident. When he was asked about his comments after the session by the media, Tsunoda doubled down.
“It is what it is. I saw he was going very, very slowly in Turn 11, waiting for me in the middle of the corner. So not ideal,” he told media including Motorsport Week.
“Until then, I had some pace to go through to Q3, and I lost everything from that, so it was very frustrating.”
He was reluctant to say Lawson’s actions were deliberate, although he did point out it’s not the first time he felt the Racing Bulls driver had been in his way.
“I don’t know, because obviously I’m not his brain, and I don’t want to cause him any problems,” he continued.
“I’ll mention it. Let’s see how it goes. We’ve talked about it, I think, the previous problems in Monza. But it’s always like that, I have to always be careful.”
Tsunoda takes optimism from Sprint comeback
Red Bull opted to send Tsunoda out earlier than most to complete his laps, a change made to avoid the mistake that saw him eliminated in SQ1 in Sprint Qualifying.
“Just didn’t want to take the risk not to make the lap or miss the lap time like yesterday, which was kind of planned,” he explained.
“So I think I’m happy with Q1, how it went. It’s a shame I had to traffic both laps.”
Tsunoda was able to recover places during the Sprint Race, collecting points after he made up 11 positions when chaos ensued at the front on the opening lap.
Having endured a “terrible” weekend in Singapore, the Japanese driver admitted his comeback drive to seventh, picking up two points, was a confidence boost.
“It’s good. I mean, Singapore was terrible. So at least I learned something from that. Normally, in that situation, there’s not much to lose,” he said.
“Obviously, it’s a Sprint, qualifying, and race. So you don’t want to damage much because of the qualifying. But yeah, it was worth taking the risk.”
READ MORE – Max Verstappen explains why he missed final run en route to F1 US GP pole
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