Yuki Tsunoda, Alpha Tauri Japanese Formula 1 driver, claimed that Texas Grand Prix was the best in his rookie season.
The Japanese driver started the race at tenth place, while he finishes the United State GP race on the ninth place. He finished behind the Red Bull, Mercedes, Ferrari and McLaren teams whose drivers finished in top eight.
Tsunoda qualified in top ten and started the race on the unfavorable soft tyres. Likewise, Carlos Sainz did the same but finished on the seventh position.
Last time, at Hungarian GP he finishes in top 10. “It was a good step,” he said.
“[It’s been a] long time [with] no points, and I think from especially Turkey I had a quite good progress, and in the end in Turkey I had a big mistake. But I improved those things and brought the car back home.
“I was quite consistent, and also I think the best race I did in the season so far, even with this difficult situation.
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“I think I need lots of space, I have to learn, so just keep pushing and having more consistent points.”
He spent early part of the race holding off Valtteri Bottas of Mercedes at Circuit of the Americas. He also held Hamilton for few laps at Turkish GP.
“Normally I lose quite a lot positions on the first lap,” he said.
“And this time I gained a couple of positions, went a little bit more aggressive compared to other rounds, and it was okay, so I’ll just keep doing like this.
“I’m happy, especially as my team-mate had an unfortunate retirement and [I was] more responsible for scoring points, especially when we think about the teams’ championship.
“Even small points in the end can be big thing, so I’m happy with what I did.
“It was not easy, definitely. I really struggled for the rear in high speed understeer. But in the end, communicating with engineers to try to recover with the switches. I managed to bring it back home.
“I think we did even good step for the communication between my engineers and me.”
Tsunoda identifies the areas of improvement, adding: “I think also I need to dial up a little bit from the FP1. I was going P18, P18, FP1, FP2, which sometimes makes the engineers or team having question marks to me.”
