Christian Horner reveals Yuki Tsunoda mistake that 'ruined' Japanese GP

Christian Horner has revealed how a qualifying mistake "dictated" the rest of Yuki Tsunoda's Japanese Grand Prix weekend for Red Bull. 

After strong showings in practice, and in Q1 where he was just 0.024s slower than Max Verstappen, Tsunoda was eliminated in Q2 with a time actually 0.033s slower than he had posted in the first segment of the session. 

It left him 15th on the grid, and although he was shuffled forward one place after Carlos Sainz's grid penalty, the Japanese racer could not climb into the points on a day when overtaking was difficult and tyre degradation minimal. 

Reflecting on Tsunoda's debut with the team, Horner was impressed by what had been delivered, and explained how Tsunoda was simply caught out as he made the mistake in Q2.

"Yuki has settled into the team and he's given very good feedback," Horner told media including RacingNews365. 

"His FP1 was very strong, FP3 was gine and in Q1, he was only a tenth away from Max, but in Q2, he made a mistake. 

“He was 15kph quicker into Turn 1 than he's ever been into Turn 1 before and he had a moment, and then you are chasing the lap the rest of the way.

"And so qualifying 15th dictated his race. He made an overtake [on Lawson], and had an undercut on Pierre Gasly, and then spent the rest of the afternoon looking at Fernando Alonso's rear-wing, but it was a race I can't remember seeing any overtakes at all.

"Had he qualified higher, he would have finished naturally higher, but he has given good feedback, and he is finding his feet within the team and we'll see that performance over the next few races."