Soft tires were not considered a good start compound at the F1 US Grand Prix, but AlphaTauri Honda’s Yuki Tsunoda endured the heat and finished in 9th place, giving the team two points.
Yuki Tsunoda won the 10th grid with a solid qualifying performance that made him advance to Q3 for the fifth time this season in qualifying on Saturday. However, he became two of the two drivers who started the race with soft tires with Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz.
Still, the choice went well, and given that teammate Pierre Guthrie retired, Yuki Tsunoda was able to score useful points for AlphaTauri Honda.
“We were able to maximize our advantage on the first lap and overtake the two cars,” said Yuki Tsunoda.
“Then I saved the tires. Unfortunately, another one eventually retired. Especially when it comes to the team championship, I had a big responsibility to score points.
“I managed to get points. I’m glad I didn’t get points for a while. I’m grateful to the team.”
Yuki Tsunoda has won points for the first time since the F1 Hungarian Grand Prix in August. And at the beginning of the race, he showed a performance to suppress Mercedes’ Valtteri Bottas.
Yuki Tsunoda was determined to suppress Valtteri Bottas at the start of the race.
“Yeah. I don’t want other cars and other drivers to easily pass, I just did the right thing, the normal thing. I sacrificed a bit with the tires, but I’m very happy. I’m looking forward to that fight. “It was,” said Yuki Tsunoda.
And when Yuki Tsunoda crossed the line, his race engineer Mattia Spini shouted, “P9 This is the best race of the year, good job.”
Category: F1 / Yuki Tsunoda / Honda F1 / F1 USA GP / Alpha Tauri
