Racing Bulls
Tsunoda was the only midfield runner to score in the Sprint, opening his team’s account for the year with an assured drive to P6. Hadjar was in the thick of the action all Sprint long, being overtaken and overtaking with equal measure, which will have helped banish the memories from Melbourne once and for all. He then impressed even more in Qualifying as the team got both cars into Q3.
Once there, the rookie out-qualified his team mate with P7 on the grid, as he gets set to chase a maiden points finish in F1.
Isack Hadjar, Sprint: 13th, Qualifying: 7th, 1:31.079
“It was important for me to gain some experience in the Sprint race this morning, and I think it was a decent race for us where I also had fun battling with some of the other drivers. Towards the end of the race, we had a very good pace, in a circuit where tyre degradation is pretty high for everyone. It seemed that for us it was better than the other midfield cars around, but I think we can still improve and we have some ideas on how to make a further step forward.
“This afternoon, Q1 was fantastic. I think I had my best balance there and I felt very good in the car. Then throughout Q2 and Q3, the wind changed, which impacted the feeling I had whilst I was driving. It was an intense and stressful Q3, and I was obviously very excited to be out there with the top guys, but at the same time, I’m a bit gutted about my final lap as I think there was still a bit more lap time to find. After Melbourne, the team did a great job coming here to Shanghai and maximising the package in a very different circuit. The car works perfectly and we’ll do our best to try and get some points tomorrow.”
Yuki Tsunoda, Sprint: 6th, Qualifying: 9th, 1:31.638
“A strong Sprint race today, it was not certainly easy. I’m impressed with how the pace was throughout. I thought it was going to be a very tough race, but we were able to hold off quite well and keep the top teams behind. I definitely enjoyed it. Towards the end I had quite a lot of degradation, which I wasn’t expecting, but I was happy that I was able to maximise the performance of the car and squeeze the last couple of points in the bag, especially losing big points last week.
“In Quali, I’m happy that we have both cars in the mix, we are performing super super good. A big credit to the team here and in the factory, the amount of effort they’ve done, it’s massive, such a fantastic job. As for myself, I struggled in Q3, I made a bit of a mistake there. I had a bit of momentum in T13, I went off the track and wasn’t able to finish the lap. Until then it was a good lap. Isack did a very good job as well, he bounced back really strong. We’re in the mix for sure, we just need to put it all together with strategy, but I think there’s potential for both cars to score points tomorrow like we did in the Sprint race.”
Alan Permane, Racing Director
“Obviously, an extremely good day for us, starting with the Sprint race, where Yuki made an amazing start and two places up in the first lap to P6. Then, it was a case of managing the tyres as best he could, there was a lot of front tyre degradation from everybody, and we suffered similarly. But he managed it well and never really looked in trouble, never looked like a threat to lose that position. So, we could bring home our first points of the season with that sixth place. Then we went into Qualifying with high confidence and we managed the tyre usage well. For Yuki, he was down a set because of getting into SQ3 yesterday, both drivers drove a brilliant Qualifying. It’s great to see Isack put the words of Melbourne behind him with a really solid performance. Both well into Q3, we start the race seventh and ninth tomorrow with excellent point scoring opportunities.”
Laurent Mekies, Team Principal
“The whole team has done a mega job here in Shanghai over the past two days, with Yuki and Isack on top of their game, producing a strong showing in the Sprint this morning. Yuki brought home our first points of the season after a sensational drive, keeping much faster cars behind him.
“Qualifying this afternoon was a good confirmation of the pace we showed so far this weekend, and it’s great to see both Isack and Yuki in Q3 in such a competitive field! The weekend is far from being over and the ultimate test is tomorrow. We will be regrouping overnight and working very hard with everyone from the race track to the factory to extract everything we can from our car and target points with both drivers. Finally, well done also to Rafaela Ferreira, our F1 Academy driver, who finished fifth here today in a tremendous first race of the season.”
