How Tsunoda’s “P1” gamble was ruined by F1’s red flag rules

Yuki Tsunoda believes he would have led the Brazilian Grand Prix had the safety car and subsequent red flags not been called for at Interlagos.

The Japanese driver was one of a select few to opt for a switch to extreme wet tyres as rain pelted the Sao Paulo circuit, with he and team-mate Liam Lawson at one stage lapping faster than those around them by almost five seconds per lap.

But with others trying to brave it out on intermediates as the deluge got heavier, race control had no alternative other than to send the safety car out on track, a neutralisation that became a full red-flag stoppage once Franco Colapinto had crashed his Williams catching up to the pack after a pitstop.

Tsunoda, who was running third before his pitstop, lost out with F1’s rules allowing for free tyre changes under red flag conditions and would eventually finish eighth on the road – a result that was upgraded to seventh courtesy of a 10-second penalty for McLaren’s Oscar Piastri, who had earlier punted Lawson into a spin at Turn 1.

“I think what we did, switching to extreme, that was good,” explained Tsunoda.

“Just the safety car and the red flag came out, that was the point that went very down. If the red flag didn’t come out, probably I would, at some point, have overtaken a lot of cars and maybe [been] P1, but it just didn’t come towards us.”

Lawson also scored points as RB locks into a fight for sixth in the constructors’ standings, albeit losing ground to double podium-scoring Alpine.

Having stressed the importance of the result for the Faenza-based team, Tsunoda added: “It wasn’t easy conditions. If you lose concentration, [it can have] a lot of consequences.

“I enjoyed the last stint, good fight with Oscar [Piastri]. I tried to be within 10 seconds. You know, could have done a lot of things wrong, but kept it clean and tried to score P7, which is good.”