AlphaTauri’s Yuki Tsunoda revealed his fury at Logan Sargeant over the team radio when a crash during the spring qualifying session cost the Japanese driver a shot at a top level start on Saturday afternoon.
Sargeant had already secured a spot in SQ2 but was attempting to improve his standing during a flying lap when he made contract with the wall, incurring significant damage to the right of his Williams.
With the incident resulting in a red flag and no chance of the session resuming, the bottom five at the time of the crash were eliminated from qualifying.
This meant Nyck de Vries finished 20th, Pierre Gasly ended in 19th, Yuki Tsunoda will start in P18, Valtteri Bottas will begin from 17th and Zhou Guanyu will line up in P16.
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With both AlphaTauri’s in the bottom five, Tsunoda did not hold back in expressing his frustration over the situation, especially as he was only a few metres from setting an improved time when the red flag was waved.
“No!” Tsunoda screamed at his team.
“Are you f****** kidding me?”
The Japanese driver is no stranger to aggressive outburst on the track, with his attitude blamed for a series of crashes earlier in his career.
However, he has been showing a more level-headed approach this season, as he looks to take on the role of team leader following Gasly’s move to Alpine.
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AlphaTauri’s poor showing during the sprint qualifying session follows a mixed set of results during the Friday qualifying, which left Tsunoda in P7 for Sunday’s race, while de Vries will start in P20.
Tsunoda has had a tough start to the season, narrowly missing out on points in Bahrain and Saudi Arabia.
The Japanese driver secured his first point of 2023 in Australia, taking P10 after Carlos Sainz was demoted out of the points due to a last lap penalty.