Tsunoda: I got "too excited" before Imola F1 qualifying shunt

Yuki Tsunoda admits he got "too excited" before crashing out of F1 qualifying for the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix.

Tsunoda lost the rear of his AlphaTauri at the exit of the Variante Alta chicane, causing him to spin and crash into the wall in the early minutes of Q1.

The Japanese driver is set to start tomorrow’s race from 20th, while teammate Pierre Gasly will start fifth - highlighting AlphaTauri’s impressive turn of pace this weekend.

Explaining his crash, Tsunoda said: "Yeah just pushing too much at entry, to be honest. Until then the lap felt great, actually. I think that potentially it was easy to go through Q1 with one tyre. Just I was too excited. 

"For me, that was a silly mistake, so I feel really sorry for the team. You have to reset today, and just drive the race tomorrow."

Despite the heavy impact, Tsunoda walked away unscathed. 

"For me, at the moment I don’t have any pain or anything like that," Tsunoda added. "I feel more worried about the car than me. It looked pretty bad actually, when I saw on the back. I really hope the car is repaired properly tomorrow. Just feel sorry for the team today."

Looking ahead to Sunday’s race, conditions are expected to be significantly cooler, with a threat of rain.

Tsunoda is confident he can make the most of the conditions to get back up the order, despite overtaking at Imola being difficult due to its tight nature.

"Tomorrow is going to be maybe different conditions," Tsunoda concluded. "Rain. Try to help me a bit, anything. So just really put it all together and don’t do mistakes like today. I think it will be a bit of a different view. 

"Also it’s going to be different conditions, so I just have to adapt to the conditions tomorrow, and push until the end."