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Tsunoda frustrated by Hamilton qualifying run-in

Tsunoda felt he was unnecessarily impeded by Hamilton during qualifying despite being summoned for blocking the Briton.

Tsunoda Zandvoort Wet
Article
To news overview © RN365/Michael Potts

Yuki Tsunoda was left frustrated after his encounter with Lewis Hamilton during qualifying for the Dutch Grand Prix.

Tsunoda believes he was held up by Hamilton during his Q2 lap, with both drivers failing to advance into the top 10 - Hamilton ended the session in 13th, while Tsunoda dropped out in 14th.

The Japanese driver is, however, confident that AlphaTauri had the speed to advance into the final segment of qualifying.

“I had traffic in a couple of places,” he told media including RacingNews365.com.

“The car definitely had pace to go through to Q3 but we weren’t able to extract performance, so learning for the future.

“Obviously a lot of things I can help improve to help make the right decisions.”

Tsunoda pins the blame on Hamilton

Hamilton passed Tsunoda near the end of the lap as he was pushing, with the Briton feeling as though he was impeded by his rival - earning the AlphaTauri driver a trip to the stewards.

Tsunoda, who then began a fast lap, caught up to Hamilton who he believes failed to move out of the way in time.

“He passed me the lap before I pushed, at the last corner, which in my perspective is not an issue.

“He was just continuing his lap, I was just behind him and he never backed off. He finally backed off at Turn 7 but I was way too close. I lost a lot of downforce through Sectors 1 and 2.

“Maybe he was planning to do two push [laps] in a row.

“It’s hard to believe in these conditions doing two push [laps] in a row. Definitely frustrating, I lost a lot of time there.”

F1 2023 Dutch Grand Prix RN365 News dossier

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RESULTS 2024 F1 Belgian Grand Prix - Free Practice 2