Yuki Tsunoda denies blame after shock Max Verstappen Q1 exit

Yuki Tsunoda has denied that his setup is to "blame" for Max Verstappen's shock early qualifying exit in the São Paulo Grand Prix. 

The four-time world champion was eliminated in Q1 after only managing to go 16th fastest, while Tsunoda was also eliminated in 19th. 

It represented Red Bull's first double-exit from the first part of qualifying since 2006, on what is becoming a weekend to forget for the Austrian outfit. 

Verstappen finished the Sprint in Interlagos in fourth but made several complaints about the RB21, while Tsunoda managed to finish in 13th after starting from the pit lane. 

Tsunoda started in the pit lane due to Red Bull performing several changes to his car, changes which were later made to Verstappen's RB21 for qualifying. 

However, while Tsunoda felt better after the changes were made, Verstappen's struggles worsened, to the extent that his title chances have taken a serious blow.

Discussing his side of the garage making changes for the sprint which Verstappen also took for qualifying, Tsunoda told select media including RacingNews365: "Yeah, some of things we changed for the Sprint race, gave us a good idea how to make the car better, we thought. 

"I think a couple of things that he also took was from the setup that I was using. Now, I don't want to blame my setup, because I think the setup was okay. Just the main thing is really being able to make the tyre work. 

"I think from our side of the garage, we were able to make some good amount of steps in terms of the parts we changed after the sprint race, and I feel clearly better in the car. 

"But, an issue came out, which seems like it's quite big. It's a shame that we were not able to maximise that opportunity."