Max Verstappen’s 3-word reaction to Yuki Tsunoda's horrific crash during the F1 Saudi Arabian GP FP2 surfaces

Max Verstappen's reaction to Yuki Tsunoda’s crash during the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix's second practice session on Friday surfaced. Tsunoda suffered a shunt at the corner leading to the main straight after clattering into the right barrier during the second practice session at Jeddah Corniche Circuit.

The Japanese driver, who is in his third race weekend with the Red Bull Racing outfit, had been gradually adapting to the demands of the high-speed Jeddah Corniche Circuit and was sixth fastest overall during the session prior to the incident. The crash, which brought the practice session to an end, left Tsunoda powerless, with a punctured front right tyre and a damaged front wing.

Upon witnessing the accident his teammate had suffered, Verstappen, on the radio with his race engineer, reacted with a three-word response. Speaking as shared to X (formerly Twitter) by Autosport, the four-time champion asked:

“He’s okay, yeah?”

Fortunately, Yuki Tsunoda was unhurt from the crash but was left apologetic to his team and the garage following the incident. The crash meant the Red Bull mechanics would have to carry out significant repairs on the car ahead of the remainder of the race weekend.

The 24-year-old, who was promoted to partner Max Verstappen before the Japanese Grand Prix, will be hoping to move past the crash and continue building on his form from the previous race, where he helped the Red Bull team secure a double points finish for the first time since the 2024 Las Vegas Grand Prix.

Max Verstappen speaks about Red Bull’s car after Saudi GP practice

Max Verstappen shared his thoughts on the Red Bull RB21 challenger following the conclusion of the second practice session at the Saudi Grand Prix. The 27-year-old had endured a weekend to forget at the previous race in Bahrain, where he could only muster a sixth-place finish.

The Milton Keynes outfit responded to the challenges faced at the Sakhir race with a new engine and a few performance-specific upgrades to the car ahead of the Saudi race weekend. While these upgrades showed little sign of improvement during the first free practice session, the car appeared to come alive during the second session, with Max Verstappen matching the pace of the McLaren cars and finishing in third place.

This rapid change in fortune prompted questions from the media during the post-practice interactions, and Verstappen, speaking via PlanetF1, shared his thoughts on the performance of the RB21 challenger. He said,

“We tried some different things with the car, trying to find maybe a different direction with it, and I think we learned a lot from it.”

“I think at the end of the day, you have to just go from your own feeling and what you feel in the car over one lap. It’s a bit better, but then the long runs, they were very tough still for us.”

“I think one standout is, of course, McLaren being very competitive, but from our side, there’s still quite a bit of work to do and things to understand,” Verstappen added.

The Red Bull RB21 challenger boasts a reputation for understeer and a lack of overall balance — an issue all its drivers, including Max Verstappen, have complained about. Whether the promising outing seen during the second practice session will translate into a stellar race weekend for the Austrian outfit remains something only time will tell.