Yuki Tsunoda: We have a chance to fight for points

Yuki Tsunoda was better than his partner in understanding the behavior of the car, which received a number of technical innovations, but Daniel Ricciardo did not do well in qualifying and AlphaTauri does not yet know why.

Yuki Tsunoda (6th): “Today I had fun, especially qualifying was fun. The team did an excellent job, although yesterday was not easy. The technical innovations we had prepared for the season finale promised to be effective in theory, but the balance of the car had changed a lot compared to previous races, and at first we had problems trying to figure it out.

We analyzed the information collected, adjusted the settings and this allowed us to progress from session to session. I already felt more comfortable in the AT04, so we can say that we already had a pretty good car in qualifying.

But the most important thing is that the team did a great job, and without everyone’s efforts I wouldn’t have been able to start tomorrow’s race from sixth position.

We are in a good position to score points, and although there are guys behind us in fast cars, it seems like everyone is going to have problems with tire wear, so you never know how things will go.

I think we have a chance to fight for a place in the top ten, so I will do everything I can to show a good result.”

Daniel Ricciardo (15th): “During the lap of my last attempt I didn’t make any mistakes and I think we could show much higher speeds.

Our pace was encouraging, but when I came onto the track we felt like we had lost some of our speed. We will analyze the information collected and try to find answers. It’s a shame, because yesterday we looked good, but today we couldn’t achieve more.

It’s a long race ahead and it looks like some teams have managed to save a few sets of hard tires, so hopefully this opens up some tactical space for us moving forward.”

Jonathan Eddolls, chief racing engineer: “Analysis of the information collected showed that the speed capabilities of both cars were limited, but in different ways. Daniel wanted the front wheels to grip the track with more confidence, while Yuki wanted the car to be more stable compared to the second practice.

That’s why we had to find a compromise, because the track temperature would be higher during the third practice and would drop again during qualifying.

We went a little overboard with the balance of Daniel’s car, but it was useful to find the limit of what was possible, so for qualifying we partially returned to the original settings. In Yuki’s case, the settings remained the same as in today’s training.

At the start of qualifying, the teams had an equal number of sets of tires at their disposal: everyone saved two sets of Hard or two sets of Medium, and for the three qualifying parts everyone had four sets of Soft tires.

The results were very tight and given the change in track conditions we knew we would need two sets for the first session and only have one left for the second.

Daniel had more problems with the car, but we haven’t discovered the reasons yet and he couldn’t reach the final. The results were so close that only 0.051 seconds separated him from 12th position, but he remained 15th. In preparation for tomorrow’s race, engineers are working hard to find answers.

Yuki did an excellent job, was very fast throughout qualifying, qualified for the final session and ultimately drove a great lap on the last set of fresh tyres, allowing him to start from 6th position. If you look at the cars of which teams will be driving around his AT04, it is hardly possible to achieve more.”