Tsunoda concedes he ‘made life much more difficult’ with five-second penalty in Miami after battling for final point

Yuki Tsunoda admitted that he made his life “much more difficult” after picking up a five-second time penalty in the Miami Grand Prix, meaning that he had to work even harder to build a gap and hold onto the final point on offer in P10.

After lining up in 10th on the grid, Tsunoda gained a position at the start but hit trouble when he was investigated for speeding in the pit lane during his pit stop, an offence that ultimately earned him a five-second penalty.

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As he continued to run in P10 for much of the remainder of the race, the Red Bull driver was then faced with the challenge of maintaining a big enough gap back to Racing Bulls’ Isack Hadjar in P11 in order to keep the final points-paying position.

This was a feat that Tsunoda ultimately achieved, but the 24-year-old conceded after the race that it had not been a straightforward task.

“Certainly my old team mate didn’t make my life easier!” said Tsunoda. “[In the] last 10 laps he picked up pace quite a lot and I was pushing enough, and on top of it he came back. That was really tough, but I just got to go what I’ve got to do and I maximised my pace.

“Obviously a bit unnecessarily from myself that made my life much more difficult with the five seconds.

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"I’m happy that I’m able to score points, but at the same time not happy with the pace I had, and I think as a team we struggled [on] overall pace, I think not just me, so [it’s] something that we have to look at.”

Pushed on whether he was surprised by the RB21’s pace at the Miami International Autodrome, Tsunoda admitted that there are still improvements to be made going forward.

“[The] pace itself was alright,” the Japanese driver explained. “Williams were flying today, but at the same time I think we didn’t have good pace at all. I struggled from Qualifying – I just feel the car is not going forwards as I’m expecting to, and currently that’s the main limitation.

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“To be honest it’s hard to explain what the issue is. I did what I can do in this race and that was my probably maximum as I can do for now. For sure we’ll have to look through it, for the driving style or whatever but, yeah, it’s tough.”