Yuki Tsunoda is in confident mood after he he challenged Max Verstappen in his first outing for Red Bull Racing during Friday practice for his home race at the Japanese Grand Prix, Afrosport reports.
The 24-year-old was brought from sister team Racing Bulls to replace the struggling Liam Lawson, and delighted the home crowed at Suzuka as he finished sixth-fastest during the first practice session, just 0.1 seconds behind Verstappen.
It was an encouraging start for Tsunoda as he had limited running in second practice that was dominated by four red flags.
“I think we can say today was okay, but it could have been better,” he said after the session.
“FP1 was better than FP2, I gained a lot more learnings. We didn’t set a lap time in FP2 due to the number of stops in the session, you could maybe call the session a shambles for everyone.
“Overall, it is okay and I am happy to have confidence in the car. ”
Tsunoda’s performance was no surprise to Racing Bulls team principal Laurent Mekies, who has seen him mature as an F1 driver.
“We have seen him being more calm, being more mature, improving massively his technical feedback,” he said.
“Really quite an incredible step across the last 12 months, and this is converting to speed… I think it was a very impressive example of improvement. You can sense how much effort and concentration he’s been putting into that.”
Day 1 as a Red Bull Racing driver
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The Japanese Grand Prix has never been won by a Japanese driver with Tsunoda’s best finish being 10th at last season’s event.
