2024 Formula 1 Japanese Grand Prix Highlights

Yuki Tsunoda was full of relief after scoring a point on home soil at the 2024 Formula 1 Japanese Grand Prix for the very first time. With back-to-back top-10 finishes now, the RB driver is enjoying a rich run of form.

Daniel Ricciardo

After yesterday, when we made some steps in the right direction, I was really excited to come racing today and have a good day. In these cases, a Lap 1 incident is one of the worst things that could happen to a driver, especially as you don’t really have the chance to do anything after the massive build-up and energy used to be prepared for the race. It was a shame and an unfortunate one for all of us involved. It was a racing incident, and luckily, Alex and I were okay after some checks. The start of the race was really poor as Yuki, and I were on medium tyres, and we were struggling so much compared to the other cars behind on the soft compound. In Turn 2, it settled a little bit, but I still felt like I was sliding and then saw an Aston on the outside of me. I was watching him, but when I was preparing to enter Turn 3, without using all the track as it was the first lap, Albon got alongside me and had a better exit from Turn 2. I didn’t see him, and we touched. This is racing sometimes and is part of it; there is not really anyone to blame; there was just a massive difference in terms of grip out of there. I’m sorry for the team, but China is soon, so we’ll focus on that.

Yuki Tsunoda

I’m feeling relieved. After I lost some positions on the first start, I felt a little disappointed, but at the same time, I just focused on the second start. I had a good one and was able to make up a few positions. One of the big highlights was the pitstop. Our mechanics did a fantastic job. It was such a fast pitstop that it allowed us to overtake two cars, which was insane! Without that, scoring points today would’ve been much more complex, so the team deserves enormous credit. So do the Japanese fans; they are great! Obviously, finally being able to score points in front of my home fans here and those who couldn’t make it to the track and watched it on TV makes me a very happy guy. I felt confident today. I knew our straight-line speed wasn’t that competitive compared to other cars, but at the same time, we knew we had a lot of downforce, and the only chance we had was through the esses, generally affected by downforce. It allowed me a couple of good overtakes, and I definitely enjoyed that. Regarding tyre management, I feel like my driving in today’s race was probably my best. I started my career here, and scoring points here is extraordinary. A big thank you to everyone at Honda, Red Bull and Visa Cash App RB who have been involved and supported me throughout my journey. I don’t feel like I scored P10 today, but P1 – it’s a great feeling.

Laurent Mekies – Team Principal

Great result for the team today. Yuki drove a fantastic, well-controlled race in front of his home crowd, managing his tyres and pushing hard when it mattered. There was some great overtaking, too, and not a foot wrong all weekend. He deserves the superb result of today. Daniel’s incident in the first lap was unfortunate. We were pretty exposed against our competitors behind us, who were mainly on soft tyres, and these things can happen. What is important is that both our drivers had great pace here, as demonstrated yesterday in qualifying. The team performed very well at extracting everything we could from our package this weekend, including a decisive high-pressure pit stop in the race and many difficult calls. It’s only one point for the championship, but it is a very important one, especially on a day when the top five teams have both cars finishing the race. A big well done to everyone in Faenza, Bicester, and our partner Honda. We know we need to keep pushing very hard in all areas to be able to keep topping the midfield, and it will be another completely new challenge for the sprint race in China in two weeks’ time.

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