For Yuki Tsunoda, qualifying for the 2023 Formula 1 Race of Canada was a qualifying session to forget. The Japanese dropped out in Q1 in 16th place and was penalized after the session by three positions because he is said to have obstructed Nico Hülkenberg. This means that the AlphaTauri pilot will start on Sunday in 19th place from the last row on the grid.
“We just had no pace at all,” Tsunoda struggles with his qualifying. “I don’t know what to say. I don’t think my lap was bad at the end. It was drier than in FP3 but the grip level was the same. It felt strange.”
In the third practice session, which was also rainy, he had achieved a good result with eighth place, but he wasn’t able to repeat that in qualifying. “The pace was very good in the third practice session, even given the conditions,” he says and is surprised.
“Now it was a bit drier, which is why there should actually be more grip, but I hardly felt any difference,” said Tsunoda. “It’s strange. I don’t know if the tires overheated or something, but we have to find out.”
Like many other drivers, Tsunoda had to answer to the stewards after the session. He is said to have stopped other drivers in Q1 on two occasions: first Charles Leclerc in turn 13, then Nico Hülkenberg in the hairpin bend.
Two investigations against Tsunoda
“It was very difficult but I did my best,” he said of the traffic problem. “I was also often held up. It was a bit chaotic.”
In the matter against Leclerc, the AlphaTauri driver was acquitted. Leclerc ran into Tsunoda before the chicane, who abandoned his attempt after being slowed down by Logan Sargeant.
The Ferrari driver explained that he quickly caught up with Tsunoda on the straight and then eased off the accelerator as a precaution. However, he admitted that it was difficult for Tsunoda to manage the situation. Therefore, the commissioners decided that he did not delay Leclerc unnecessarily.
Hulkenberg stopped
The situation is different in the case of Nico Hulkenberg, who was disabled in the Tsunoda hairpin bend. The Japanese had come a little too far to the outside in the curve and then got back on the ideal line in front of Hülkenberg.
Tsunoda defended that he was on a fast lap himself, but according to the commissioners he was already three seconds slower than his previous lap.
“We find that the driver of Car 22 unnecessarily impeded Car 27,” the statement said. “After going too wide at Turn 10, he could have aborted his lap and driven off the racing line. That would have avoided an obstruction.”
With starting position 19, Tsunoda has a difficult task in the race. “We’ll see how it is in the dry,” he says. “Hopefully we can have better pace than in qualifying. I’m optimistic because the race pace has been pretty good so far this year.”