Yuki Tsunoda: We deservedly earned points

The Visa RB team earned points in both races of the weekend in Miami, extending its lead over Haas in the Constructors’ Championship, but while Daniel Ricciardo excelled in the previous days, his teammate Yuki Tsunoda performed with confidence on Sunday. .

Yuki Tsunoda (7th): “I’m very satisfied, the team did a great job! A great week in which we scored points in both races. You could say that we expected to be able to fight for a good result in Miami, but the most important thing is that we achieved that.

The team acted according to a pre-established plan and we did not make a single mistake. I’m happy with the way I rode, even though I didn’t do my best in the beginning. But I changed my mind, kept fighting, tried to attack as aggressively as possible – especially in the last part of the distance, when I was basically riding alone and at the same time doing laps at the same pace as the competitors ahead of me. mine.

The team has built a great car, I really appreciate that. We work very hard at the base in Faenza and in the end we were able to earn points, which is well deserved. We have made rapid progress since the start of the season and I am looking forward to the next races.

The Imola stage will be another home race for me and I hope we can keep this rhythm and show a good result for the Italian fans, but above all we will try to satisfy all the people working at the team base. Everyone is doing a great job and we will definitely keep attacking!”

Daniel Ricciardo (15th): “We always have an optimistic attitude before the Grand Prix, but yesterday’s failed qualifying prevented us, and unfortunately it predetermined today’s race. We got stuck in traffic and just didn’t have enough pace to move forward.

When we went between other cars and tried to fight them, we had bigger problems with the pace compared to how we did the sprint yesterday, when the track in front of me was clear. I think that compared to other cars, our VCARB 01 was set up in such a way that we didn’t have enough speed on the straights.

I couldn’t do anything, so I got stuck behind my opponents. We certainly need to analyze all this, although overall it is clear that we need to perform the qualifying better – as I did on Friday, and this helped me repeat the success in the sprint.

On the plus side, the team leaves Miami in a good mood. The previous days I had a good qualifying time for the sprint and the sprint itself, and today Yuki earned points. But I am also genuinely happy for Lando Norris – I congratulate him on his victory, because although he is my opponent, we are also friends. I know he is very talented and it was only a matter of time before he got his first win.”