Christian Horner has rued Yuki Tsunoda's "annoying" first lap crash in the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix, after the Japanese made forward progress.
From eighth on the grid, Tsunoda was racing on the inside of Turn 4, with Alpine's Pierre Gasly attempting a move around the outside - but the two collided and were spat into the barrier.
Gasly retired on the spot with the rear of the car destroyed, but Tsunoda was able to make it back to the pits for an examination by the mechanics.
Ultimately, the decision was made to retire Tsunoda's car, meaning he just two points to his name since joining Red Bull - although Horner did spy a positive from Tsunoda's weekend that could have unlocked a strong result.
"It was a shame for Yuki," Horner told media including RacingNews365.
"His Q2 time [of a 1:27.990], if he had repeated that in Q3, it would have put him sixth on the grid. (Tsunoda did a 1:28.204 in Q3, 0.040s behind Carlos Sainz and 0.003s behind Lewis Hamilton).
"It was a racing incident with Pierre, he was up against the wall, and they went into the stewards' meeting and both drivers accepted it was a racing incident.
"So it was annoying for him, because he would have been right in the battle for decent points."
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