AlphaTauri Rookie, Yuki Tsunoda, says he’s learned a lot following his first race in Formula One, after admitting to losing a number of places at the beginning of the race after being “too cautious”.
The 20-year-old has been impressing spectators since he sat into the AT02 this season, and after an impressive pre-season testing run, and qualifying session, the Japanese driver ran a stellar race on Sunday evening in Bahrain – and is the first Japanese driver to score points in a debut race.
Tsunoda began today’s race in P13 but managed to finish in the points in P10 ahead of his French teammate Pierre Gasly, who finished out the first race in P17.
Speaking after his Formula One debut, Yuki Tsunoda said:
“I’m happy I managed to score points in my first Grand Prix – I think this race showed how great the performance of the car is.
“I have to say, I’m a bit disappointed still as I lost a few positions on the first lap – due to being too cautious – and had to work throughout the race to recover these. I’ve learned a lot here in Bahrain, which is really positive, and I will take this with me to Imola.
“I had some strong overtakes during the race and, for me, overtaking Fernando was quite an emotional experience, he’s a Formula 1 superstar that I’ve grown up watching, so that was pretty exciting.
“I’m really proud of my performance and I’m looking forward to seeing how we do next time out.”
Speaking about Yuki’s first on track performance for the team, Team Principal, Franz Tost said:
“Yuki had his first race in F1 and I must say he really did a fantastic job.
“We told him his aim was to come back from the first lap with a healthy car to be able to run his race, and that’s exactly what he achieved.
“He showed a lot of good overtaking maneuverers – I believe he was the car that completed the most overtakes – and his lap times were also very competitive, with the medium tyre as well as with the hard compound. He deserved ninth position and it was really nice to see how he fought against Kimi, Lance, and others – I think we can look forward to the season ahead with him.
“He is the first Japanese driver to score points in the debut race, and it’s great he achieved this result with us. I’d like to say a big thank you to everyone at Honda for putting in so much work over the winter months to provide us with such a competitive PU, essential to our performance.
