Red Bull driver Yuki Tsunoda says his own mistake led to the crash that curtailed Jeddah FP2 running, admitting he “turned too much” in the final corner.
With under nine minutes on the clock Tsunoda tagged the inside wall at the final hairpin coming onto the main straight, which appeared to break his track rod and left him unable to avoid clattering into the exit wall.
Tsunoda climbed out unhurt and soon apologised to his Red Bull team for the substantial repair job his mechanics will have on its hands on Friday night.
“Just turning too much and clipped the inside wall and just had damage,” the Japanese told F1 TV. “After that, just no control. Apologies to the team, things were looking good, so it’s a shame.”
Tsunoda had been enjoying a solid session up to that point, taking the sixth-fastest time seven tenths behind session leader Lando Norris in the McLaren, and four tenths behind his world champion team-mate Max Verstappen.
“The qualifying [simulation] lap was pretty good. I was a bit compromised with the [tyre] warm-up, but so far pretty okay,” Tsunoda said.
Yuki Tsunoda, Red Bull Racing
Photo by: Lars Baron – Motorsport Images
“I had a limited time on the long run which I caused by myself [with the crash] so I can’t really complain. It’s not definitely not how I wanted to end up, that’s for sure.
“The short runs are okay, I just compromised a bit with the warm-up, so there’s a bit more [lap time] there.”
Norris headed team-mate Piastri by 0.163s to lead the second practice, which was held at the same time of day as Saturday’s qualifying and Sunday’s race, providing a much more representative picture than the sweltering first practice session headed by Alpine’s Pierre Gasly.
But Verstappen and Tsunoda tend to run Friday with relatively conservative engine modes, suggesting Red Bull’s Saudi form on the vastly different Jeddah Corniche circuit may not be as disastrous as at its sobering Bahrain weekend.
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