Tsunoda explains huge gap to Verstappen

Yuki Tsunoda labelled the start to his Bahrain Grand Prix weekend as "pretty messy" whilst bemoaning "miscommunication" at Red Bull which cost him lap time.

The Japanese driver finished the opening practice session ninth fastest, just under 1.3 seconds off Lando Norris in first, before slumping to P18 in the second hour of running.

With team-mate Max Verstappen back in the RB21 for FP2 after Tsunoda's compatriot Ayumu Iwasa deputised in FP1, the 24-year-old found himself just under seven tenths adrift of the Dutchman who was seventh quickest at the Bahrain International Circuit.

Tsunoda explained he is still struggling to optimise the lines of communication between himself and the Red Bull pit wall.

"Bit of learning, I guess," Tsunoda said when talking through his second free practice session in Sakhir. 

"It's a bit different, the set up between the cars, to see how the performance looks like.

"But also, just this session was pretty messy overall, being able to put it all together. There was a lot of miscommunication between our side of the garage, on the radio, for example.

"That's part of the learning process, because it's still the fifth session from the when I jumped in [to the Red Bull], but was obviously not the finest session."

Tsunoda's bleak qualifying warning

Despite the difficulties, Tsunoda is hoping to continue to improve and mesh with his new team. 

However, although he is "optimistic", he warned it will be difficult to reach Q3 in qualifying.

"I hope it'll be better," the Japanese driver said when asked about the grid-setting session and the grand prix on Sunday. "[It] has to be better than this.

"I'm sure we're gonna change a lot of things. For now, the team is struggling, but at the same time, I know a lot will come from cleaner operations and everything.

"So that's kind of freed up time, so I'm still feeling optimistic. But, yeah, it will be hard for now to go through to Q3."