Tsunoda left to rue ‘stupid mistake’ that triggered enormous Qualifying crash at Imola

Yuki Tsunoda could not hide his disappointment after suffering a heavy accident in the early stages of Saturday’s Qualifying session for the Emilia-Romagna Grand Prix.

Tsunoda had just embarked on his first Q1 run at the Imola circuit when he took too much kerb at the entry of the Variante Villeneuve chicane, lost control of his car and slammed into the barriers – at one point flipping over.

READ MORE: Piastri beats Verstappen and Russell to pole in dramatic Imola Qualifying session

While Tsunoda managed to walk away from the scene and was subsequently cleared at the Medical Centre, all four corners of the Red Bull RB21 were significantly damaged – leaving mechanics with plenty of work to do overnight.

Asked how he was feeling when he entered the media pen, Tsunoda said: “I’m OK, thankfully. But at the same time, it’s very frustrating how I ended up [there] in such an early stage, and especially a very unnecessary situation.”

Tsunoda then opened up on how tough it has been so far this weekend to find a suitable balance with an RB21 package he is still trying to get to grips with – having moved over from Racing Bulls at the Japanese Grand Prix.

AS IT HAPPENED: Follow the action from Qualifying as Piastri takes pole for the Emilia-Romagna Grand Prix

“It’s quite up and down,” he admitted of the situation. “In some sessions I felt OK, in some sessions suddenly I dropped a lot.

“In FP3 it wasn’t… to be honest, it was a big mystery how I ended up. Obviously I was not able to put it all together, but at the same time it was pretty poor pace.

“We didn’t know exactly why, but we made a lot of changes and it felt pretty good in the first turn, Turn 2 and Turn 3, and I crashed immediately after.

“It’s just a shame. I feel like the car was quite there and I just put myself into the wall with such a stupid mistake.”

READ MORE: Piastri praises McLaren for strategy after taking pole position in ‘very tough’ Imola Qualifying

Tsunoda’s team mate, Max Verstappen, will start Sunday’s race from second position – having qualified between McLaren’s Oscar Piastri and Mercedes’ George Russell.