F1 | AlphaTauri, Tsunoda on the fifth row at COTA: “The changes after Friday helped me”

Yuki Tsunoda also took advantage of the big improvements made overnight on his AlphaTauri to earn a place in the top ten. The Japanese, in his first experience at COTA, will start from the fifth row after an excellent qualifying despite a not particularly exciting morning free practice session which ended in eighteenth place. The car wasn't working for both drivers on Friday, but the different conditions on Saturday evidently helped the team get back in the right direction.

“I'm quite satisfied with today, especially with the pace compared to Free Practice 3 – Tsunoda said. With the pace we had during the last session, I thought it would be difficult for us to even get through to Q2, so overall it was a good day. It's my first time in Austin, I just needed to build my rhythm and make progress. I still have to find some performance compared to my teammate and I can still improve, but it's nice to start in the top 10. The team made a lot of changes to the car over the weekend which helped a lot, I want to thank all the engineers and the mechanics”.