Yuki Tsunoda reveals 'hero stuff' desire in fierce Liam Lawson battle

Yuki Tsunoda has explained how he initially wanted to attempt a "hero stuff" move on Liam Lawson in the Azerbaijan Grand Prix.

In the closing stages of the Baku race, Tsunoda was running sixth, right behind former Racing Bulls team-mate Liam Lawson, with the duo also engaged in battle with Lando Norris and Lewis Hamilton for position. 

Tsunoda and Lawson had earlier gone wheel-to-wheel down to Turn 3 after the Japanese racer emerged from his pit-stop, but Lawson's warmer tyres allowed him to get ahead, which eventually cycled out to fifth place for Lawson with Tsunoda settling for sixth. 

The eight points he scored for the result are one more than he had previously managed for Red Bull in total since his promotion ahead of the Japanese GP, and it is his best finish in F1 since fourth in the 2021 Abu Dhabi GP. 

Reflecting on a positive weekend, Tsunoda, who had qualified sixth, described how he wanted to attempt a "hero stuff" move on Lawson.

"If I had been able to rejoin two metres faster, probably I would have been able to keep Liam behind," Tsunoda reflected to media, including RacingNews365. 

"I'm happy with the fantastic job with the strategy, and something I was able to improve into this week was the long run, which was massive, and I was also internally supported by the team to make changes to the car, which affected the long runs, which was good.

"I couldn't do some aggressive manoeuvre and lose position to Lando, it matters for Red Bull as a team being ahead of McLaren. 

"The most important thing is to be ahead of McLaren, and both cars were in front.

"I had a lot of emotions that I wanted to overtake, and so some hero thing, some hero stuff in overtaking, but yeah, [I told myself to] slow down."