Yuki Tsunoda and Laurent Mekies agreed the first lap to be the ‘worst’ of F1 2025 in Singapore GP for the Japanese driver, where a comeback was in vain.
After the high in Baku, Red Bull’s Tsunoda was struggling for grip in F1 Singapore GP. He said so on Friday and it eventually cost him on Saturday when he was knocked out in Q2. He gained couple of places via penalty, but it didn’t give any advantage due to the shocking start he had.
He dropped to the back of the pack and was nowhere until Red Bull elected to pit to try and do something. It somewhat worked for him but he got stuck behind Franco Colapinto which eventually cost him. He passed him but it was too late and he lost tyre performance.
He also had Max Verstappen lapping him, which further compromised his chance against Isack Hadjar and allowed Carlos Sainz to pass as well. “The position I was in, I had to do something, especially this track I know it is really hard to overtake, so I tried to overcut the cars in front,” said Tsunoda to media.
“It definitely was the worst start or the first lap ever in my life. I can’t still believe what happened in the first lap. Every place I tried to go, every corner in the first lap, I was literally covered or blocked by someone. I just didn’t have any space to go. I lost so many positions in the first lap.
“It was definitely the worst start ever. I don’t know what I should have done there. I’m sure there’s something I could have done better. That for sure made my life very hard afterwards. Then I had damage, I lost little bit of grip but I had to try with the car I had I think.
“It is not the nicest of feeling, it is not easy car for sure, but for me it is big difference between Max and me, he was fighting P2 and I was somewhere else,” summed up Tsunoda, as Red Bull team boss Mekies agreed on it being the worst start. He felt it was good on Friday, but it went downhill from Saturday.
“Yeah, you’re right, it was not a good, a good, let me say, it was not a good Saturday for Yuki,” said Mekies to media. “Personally, I was satisfied with the work he did on Friday. It was not looking spectacular on page one, but looking at every single lap, I think it was at the right level on Friday. Then Saturday was poor. We need to work with him to understand what derailed it.
“In the race, the first lap was certainly shocking, but from that point onward I think he did a very decent race, but from that point onward, I think he has done a very decent race. He came back, I think, from P18 to P12 with a very decent pace. We had a very poor Saturday, it’s costing us the weekend and a few points, and we’ll work together with him to improve it.”
In an unseen footage that emerged on social media, it had Tsunoda escape a disaster in the pitlane when he pitted along with Sauber’s Gabriel Bortoleto. The Sauber crew accidently left the front-right wheel upright after changing it and the tyre started to roll onto the fast lane.
Fortunately, another mechanic spotted it and quickly removed it, just when Tsunoda was about to cross Sauber’s garage after his stop. There was no investigation, but a major incident was averted. Ahead of the weekend, in a bid to push for two-stop strategy, the FIA increased the pitlane speed from 60 km/hr to 80 km/hr.
Here’s Max Verstappen on Singapore GP defence
