Good news for Yuki Tsunoda as Red Bull reveals intriguing detail about his run plan

Yuki Tsunoda completed his competitive sessions with Red Bull on Friday after his promotion from Racing Bulls last week. Competing in the Japanese Grand Prix alongside Max Verstappen, the home hero impressed everyone with his time on the sheet, and as per the Red Bull boss, he was running on the same engine mode as the four-time world champion.

After two poor shows by Liam Lawson, Red Bull carried out a swap deal with Racing Bulls, where they demoted Lawson and promoted Tsunoda. As Tsunoda embarked on to race alongside Verstappen, the latter's third teammate in four races, he delivered an impressive performance in FP1.

Questions were asked, and doubts were raised as to whether the Japanese driver would be able to deliver in front of his home crowd in a car that's regarded as undrivable by many. However, Yuki Tsunoda was indeed impressive. At the end of FP1, he was just a tenth of a second slower than Verstappen.

Talking about his performance, Red Bull team principal Christian Horner, in a conversation with Sky Sports F1, was asked if Tsunoda was in a better engine mode than Verstappen.

Horner surprised everyone, as he said:

"No, both were on same engine modes."

Yuki Tsunoda finished the FP1 in P6, with 1:29.172 on the timesheet, and was one place behind the reigning champion, who managed to clock 1:29.065. Lando Norris of McLaren finished the session on top, ahead of George Russell of Mercedes.

Although Tsunoda impressed in FP1, his FP2 performance turned out to be dismal. The former Racing Bulls driver finished the session in P18, only ahead of Aston Martin's Lance Stroll and Alpine's Jack Doohan. He clocked 1:30.625 on the timesheet and was nearly two seconds slower than Max Verstappen.

---

Yuki Tsunoda let his feelings known after FP2: "It could have been better"

After the Free Practice 2 of the Japanese Grand Prix, Yuki Tsunoda shared his take. In the session, where the Japanese driver delivered an underwhelming performance, he stated that his runs could have been better.

Yuki Tsunoda of Japan driving the (22) Oracle Red Bull Racing RB21 on track during practice ahead of the F1 Grand Prix of Japan - Source: Getty

Tsunoda told the media:

"I think we can say today was ok, but it could have been better. FP1 was better than FP2, I gained a lot more learnings. We didn’t set a lap time in FP2 due to the number of stops in the session, you could maybe call the session a shambles for everyone.

"Overall, it is ok and I am happy to have confidence in the car. The car feels a bit different to what I felt on the simulator, a bit more than I expected in terms of car feeling, it is a bit more exaggerated in the real car. We still have some work to do and we have a lot to explore in the data before tomorrow," he added.

The third race of the ongoing season, the 2025 Japanese Grand Prix, will have FP3, followed by qualifying on Saturday, and then the main race on Sunday.