Yuki Tsunoda apologised to Sebastian Vettel for the F1 Saudi Arabian GP hit as Kimi Raikkonen adds on his collision with the German.
For Aston Martin, it was a somewhat trying and in the end an uninspiring weekend for Vettel and Lance Stroll. It was a poor qualifying which saw them occupy Row 9. For the Canadian, he ended up only 11th after losing to Lando Norris, while for the four-time World Champion, he was forced to retire due to extreme damage.
From the ninth row, he treaded his way through the field and into the points before AlphaTauri’s Tsunoda and he had a coming together which was a pity for both. The German takes up his side of the story and even appears to give the Japanese a bit of advice regarding overtaking after he apologised for his Turn 1 mistake.
Vettel also had a collision with Alfa Romeo’s Raikkonen at Turn 4 which was the final end to his race. “It was all going our way as we started P17 and we were in the Top 10, so extremely difficult but we managed to go through and then we obviously got kicked out by Yuki and after that there was another incident with Kimi which destroyed the race,” he said to TV media.
“Yuki apologised and in the end, it was bitter for both of us. He was more or less out of the race and it eventually destroyed both our races. He was faster and I told him have the patience and do it the next lap or the lap after because he was faster anyways. With Kimi, I don’t know what happened because I had the corner and I don’t know where he really wanted to go, there’s no room for two cars in that corner, so I think he had to back out,” summed up Vettel.
For Tsunoda, he reached Q3 but that was really where his good luck started and finished. After the start, the Japanese was out of the Top 10 quickly enough but fought on before a misjudged or inexperienced overtake on Vettel went badly wrong for the young Japanese. To make it worse (in a way ) team mate Pierre Gasly ended up sixth.
“The last restart went well but I lost too many positions,” said Tsunioda. “A mistake with the overtake and I had a collision with Vettel, that was completely my fault so I apologise to Sebastian and yes, a shame. The pace in the car was looking quite good at that point in the race, so I should have held off and waited for another opportunity to overtake. It was my mistake and I’ve apologised to him. It’s frustrating as I feel like points were on offer.”
For the evergreen Raikkonen, his penultimate race saw him finish 15th and last after a reasonable qualifying as teammate Antonio Giovinazzi was ninth. The Finn though had a bit of a tip with his ex Ferrari team mate Vettel. But the man who will be retired this time next week really did not seem too bothered at all by the incident.
“I don’t know, I overtook him, kind of in the first corner and went a little bit wide there and then we ended up going side-by-side into Turn 4,” said Raikkonen. “My intention was to try to stay on the track and not go outside but I don’t know maybe he thought we will both go straight…I don’t know, it is what it is.”
Here’s collision between Sebastian Vettel and Yuki Tsunoda: https://www.formula1.com/en/latest/video.2021-saudi-arabian-grand-prix-tsunoda-loses-front-wing-in-collision-with-vettel.1718334178568646026.html
The story was written by Neil Farrell
Here’s the other big incidents in Jeddah
