Yuki Tsunoda was left to ponder a horrible first lap at the Singapore Grand Prix as he finished in P12 following a strong qualifying performance.
Starting P8, he lost out to Charles Leclerc and Franco Colapinto into turn 1 as his launch was terrible — a common theme for the RB cars in 2024.
After holding off Sainz into turn 7, Sergio Pérez sent it up the inside into T9, eventually taking the place on the brakes into turn 10.
With Sainz undercutting the cars around him thanks to an early stop, the 24-year-old crossed the line in P12, 2.5s behind Franco Colapinto and just over 4s to Sergio Pérez in P10.
RB went with a medium-soft strategy.
Speaking post-race, Tsunoda was frustrated at losing out on points.
“Yeah, definitely [the start is there it all went wrong].
“Today the start was the biggest thing, losing three positions, it was the main thing.
“After that, the only thing we could have done is probably wait for Safety Car or a Virtual Safety Car. But in the end, unfortunately, it was quite a clean race overall today.
“Considering the last soft run was pretty good pace, I’m very frustrated.”
As Tsunoda dropped three spots on the opening lap, the race outlook changed completely. Such was the close pace between Haas, Williams and RB over the course of the weekend, track position was king.
With Hülkenberg and Colapinto ahead, RB ran Tsunoda long in the hope of a Safety Car at the right time. It never came.
Ultimately they went for softs in the last stint to try something different.
“Yeah. Like I said, in that situation, the only thing we could have done is to wait for a Safety Car.
“So we go as long as possible, that’s why we also fitted a medium tyre, but it just didn’t pay off.
“It was pretty tough with the medium tyre going 33 [laps], it wasn’t easy, very tricky, but I understand what they’ve done.”
RB teammate Daniel Ricciardo was running ahead of him after his stop.
Tsunoda got quite worked up over the radio as he was concerned about his soft tyres due to the long stint, the temperatures and dirty air, and he went into detail in the written media pen.
“Yeah, I had fresh tyres. His [Ricciardo’s] tyres were 20 laps older.
“For me it was […] I knew I could try to overtake, or at least close to the P11 [Colapinto].
“It took a little bit of time, especially with this hot temperature. You don’t want to waste your time with a bit of dirty air, especially here, it’s pretty bad with the dirty air.
“I’m still frustrated but with myself. I shouldn’t lose the positions at the start, that’s my bad.”
Nico Hülkenberg’s P9 finish has moved Haas to within three points of RB in the Constructors’ Championship. The Faenza-based team has not scored a point since the summer break.
It remains to be seen whether Daniel Ricciardo or Liam Lawson will partner Tsunoda at the United States Grand Prix next month.
