F1 | AlphaTauri, Yuki Tsunoda: “Traffic ruined my qualifying”

Yuki Tsunoda finishes the first qualifying session in Jeddah's history in eighth position. The Japanese rookie easily moved into Q3, with an average lap even better than that of teammate Pierre Gasly. The Frenchman will start from the third row next to Sergio Perez's Red Bull, while Yuki will position himself exactly behind him, in the fourth row, next to Lando Norris's McLaren: his last qualifying session was unfortunately ruined by traffic.

“I have mixed feelings about this day. I think my performance in Q1 and Q2 was great and I'm really satisfied. Unfortunately, however, on my last lap in Q3 I encountered traffic and lost a lot of time. I think I could have started further up the grid tomorrow and at the moment that thought is a bit frustrating. But there are still many positive aspects to focus on, in particular having passed Q2 with the Medium tyres: this will allow me to start tomorrow with the same compound as everyone else around me. This is a really nice track to drive, so I'm looking forward to the race and hopefully we can cross the finish line with some points.”