After battling with Alex Albon in the closing stages at the British Grand Prix, Yuki Tsunoda was very surprised at Williams’ performance in high speed turns at Silverstone.
The Japanese driver finished 10th behind the Thai in a chaotic race. He grabbed his first point after three races outside the top 10.
Tsunoda had been ahead of Albon following the stint on intermediates, but he was simply powerless to hold him off in dry as the Williams driver made his move at Stowe on lap 45.
The 24-year-old lamented losing so much time at the corner he was passed at. In the end, he finished 11s behind Albon as the medium was a far superior tyre to the soft.
“Aero efficiency is the main topic, and still losing on the straights. I was surprised by how much difference between the Williams in the Turn 15 [Stowe], for example, where at that corner, downforce is very important.
“It’s good to score points, but at the same time, I’m shocked at how much difference there is in the corners, especially he [Albon] was always behind a car all the time and not overheating the tyres.
“I think a lot of things to work on for the future but at the same time, I think these three tracks were pretty high speed tracks, and we’re going to a slow speed track in Hungary. So hopefully we can use our strengths and fight in the top 10.”
RB lost ground to Haas in the Constructors’ Championship and now holds a slim four-point advantage over the American team thanks to Nico Hülkenberg’s P6.
Tsunoda suffered a difficult start to the weekend, spinning into the gravel in FP1 and losing valuable track time.
He admitted he thought scoring points would be unlikely after a tricky Friday as RB clearly lacked Q3 pace, but Tsunoda was encouraged by his pace in the rain.
“We didn’t expect to score points this week based on free practice. Even when we saw the last stint with the battle with Williams, they were so quick in general.
“So the main positive with this race was maintaining or closing the gap with the rain conditions to the cars in front, faster cars.
“And it made enough of a gap to score points in dry conditions. Normally, I didn’t really appreciate the wet conditions this season so far, but I mean, this race, I definitely appreciated it.”
