Red Bull issue Yuki Tsunoda apology after critical error

Red Bull team principal Laurent Mekies has sent an apology to Yuki Tsunoda after a team error left him eliminated at the end of SQ1 on Friday.

In the final moments of the sprint qualifying session in Austin, Texas, Tsunoda was at the back of a queue of cars waiting to emerge from the pit lane.

With only one minute and 45 seconds on the clock, Tsunoda was under pressure to get around to the start line and begin a new lap.

He failed to do so in time and labelled the mistake as “pretty shocking”, as it left him 18th on the starting grid for Saturday's race.

“We apologise to Yuki,” Mekies told Sky F1. “The program was a bit too tight.

“It was a choice between staying out and cooling down on the track or trying to cool down a bit better in the garage.

“We thought we would have the time to come back into the garage and get out again.

“It was only possible for a few cars to do that, and we missed the cut. So we owe Yuki an apology there.”

On the other side of the Red Bull garage, Max Verstappen delivered a stunning lap to put his car on pole position for the sprint race.

Mekies detailed that the final sector made all the difference for the four-time champion.

“We knew it was always going to be touch-and-go,” he said. “But then Lando had put a very, very good lap in Q3 and it looked really difficult to match. 

“Max was line-to-line with Lando for most of the lap. But in the last corners, he sent the car in and got the smallest of the gaps needed to get pole.”