F1 weighbridge check “f----- everything” in qualifying - Tsunoda

Tsunoda suffered his latest Q1 elimination on Friday evening at Silverstone in F1’s new-format weekend, leaving him a disappointed 16th on the grid for the championship’s first-ever sprint race.

The 21-year-old Japanese driver blamed being called to the weighbridge for a random check which he felt ruined his qualifying.

Tsunoda found himself stuck in traffic due to the delay and was hampered as he prepared for his push lap in his bid to advance to Q2.

“I’d say the weighbridge fucked everything,” Tsunoda said after qualifying.

“Just at the end it was really tight and I couldn’t do a proper cool-down lap. And also the last corners a lots of cars were waiting.

“I lost already three-tenths in the main straight, I almost regained the three tenths in the lap but with the loss I already have in sector one and main straight, and also I couldn’t do proper cool down lap… it’s just a shame.

“Even [though] there was no perfect lap due to the traffic, I start to get used to it for the driving and I started to also feel the confidence. It feels like I got started now but it’s already finished in Q1.”

AlphaTauri chief race engineer Jonathan Eddolls was convinced that Tsunoda would have advanced into the second part of qualifying had he not been caught in a traffic jam.

“Yuki was looking set to progress into Q2, but a traffic jam in the last corner when starting his final lap cost him nearly 0.2s before turn one – he did well to make most of this time back, but sadly it was not enough,” he explained.