Yuki Tsunoda to drop down 3 places on grid at Italian GP after ignoring yellow flags

Yuki Tsunoda has picked up a grid drop penalty at the Italian GP for failing to slow under yellow flags in the second Free Practice session. As noted by stewards, "It was clear that the driver did not reduce speed as required."

It's unfortunate for the AplhaTauri driver, as the penalty gets added to the already slapped ten-place grid drop for him. Tsunoda expressed his disappointment at getting the ten-place grid drop for accumulating five reprimands this season.

Tsunoda preferred to look at the bright side of things, as he will be able to start with a clean slate in the second half of the season.

"It's a shame that I got reprimanded," said Tsonada. "The situation, I couldn't control it much. And also, most of the reprimands I got was the first half of the season, which most of time were free practice traffic things and the rule was not even settled."

He continued:

"Especially the new race directors, they were finding the kind of line for the penalty. It's not ideal for of course, but anyway, it is what it is. And at least I can reset those reprimands for the second half."

Tsonada had an incident in the Dutch GP last week at Zandvoort, where the virtual safey car had to be deployed.

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We have focussed primarily on race pace today: Yuki Tsunoda

Reflecting on the first day of running at Monza, Tsunoda was happy with how the day went, as AlphaTauri focussed on long runs.

Unlike his teammate Pierre Gasly, Tsunoda has to serve two grid penalties now and will now look to make up as much ground as possible, saying the focus will be on race pace:

"We've mainly focused on race pace today, as we'll be taking the penalties for Sunday. We did some short runs on the Medium that were quite strong, but unfortunately I wasn't able to get a competitive lap in on the Softs. We need to go away and look at the long-run data tonight, as I didn't feel quite as comfortable in the car as I wanted to – this will allow us to prepare as much as possible for the race."

Tsonada admitted that it could be a difficult weekend for him but needs to keep his head up and continue working. He said:

"It's going to be a difficult weekend, but a few cars have already announced they'll be starting from the back of the grid too, so there are some opportunities there if we can find a good long-run set-up and some additional pace."

In one of the less noticeable coincidences, the Japanese is yet to have his contract with AlphaTauri renewed by Red Bull for next season.