Japan’s Tsunoda flying high in Baku

Alpha Tauri’s Yuki Tsunoda (second left) with his Dutch rookie teammate Nyck de Vries (centre)

Yuki Tsunoda’s character and skill came to the fore in Baku on Friday when the Japanese driver secured a top 10 seat on the grid of the Azerbaijan Grand Prix.

Not only was it his team AlphaTauri’s best qualifying result of the season so far it came after a spin in practice ripping his car’s rear right tyre to shreds.

Tsunoda starts Sunday’s race on the fourth row after qualifying in eighth.

In his third term with AlphaTauri he is relishing his new role as team leader to Nyck De Vries, the Dutch rookie who planted his car’s nose into the wall at turn three to bring out a red flag with 10 minutes of the first qualifying to go.

Tsunoda’s highest finish was fourth in the last race of the 2021 world championship in Abu Dhabi.

He lines up in Sunday’s race on the back of bagging his team’s first point of the season in Melbourne a month ago.

Friday’s eighth place matched his grid position in Baku in both 2022 and 2021, when he went on to come in seventh behind race winner Sergio Perez.

The 22-year-old reckons the mix of Baku’s long overtaking-friendly straight and its tight and narrow sectors suit AlphaTauri better than any of the circuits leading to this fourth leg of the season.

But he added: “It’ll still be difficult to score points but anything can happen here, especially with the new sprint qualifying format.”

On the eve of qualifying he admitted to being taken by surprise at the news that Franz Tost is stepping down as team boss at the end of the season.

“I had lunch with him, like, five days before the news or something like that.

“And actually he didn’t mention about those things. So yeah, I was surprised.”

He added: “But still, there’s 19 races to go to make him happy. Hopefully we can end the season in a positive way for him.”

For Tsunoda he would like nothing more than to repay the confidence his mentor at the team has shown in him with results on the track, starting on Sunday, not forgetting Saturday’s ‘stand alone’ sprint race either.

“I feel appreciative to him that he trusted my speed the last three years. And he was always supportive next to me. So yeah, I’ll try to make it up for him the next races.”

nr/dj