How did Tsunoda’s Zandvoort race derail due to an unusual mistake?

Although the Dutch Grand Prix saw Yuki Tsunoda score his first points with Red Bull since the Imola round, the Japanese driver could have finished higher up in the order if he hadn’t suffered from an unusual technical issue.

Red Bull gambled at the start by sending both Max Verstappen and Yuki Tsunoda on Pirelli’s soft tyres into the 72-lap race. The grip advantage and a brilliant manoeuvre at Turn 3 enabled the Dutchman to overtake Lando Norris on the opening lap.

However, the McLaren driver managed to fight back later on as Verstappen started to struggle with tyre wear. However, once he settled into his pace, he was running comfortably in third. When Norris was forced to retire in the closing stages of the race, Verstappen inherited second place.

His team-mate Yuki Tsunoda had an eventful race. The Japanese started from P12 on the grid, but managed to capitalize on the retirement of Norris, Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc to move up the order.

He then also managed to cope with a throttle map issue late on to claim his first points since the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix.

Reflecting on his race in the Netherlands, Tsunoda said: “It was a crazy race, I had a big issue in the last stint where I lost power in the car. It was a difficult race to manage, the safety cars happened at horrible times for me and then we had the issue, so it was a tricky race.

“I stayed focused and just tried to adapt with the issue and try to get into the points which we did. Ultimately I’m happy with P9 and it’s good to be back into the points which gives me confidence.

The Japanese driver continued: “The last three races the Team have given me a lot to increase performance in the car and this is a step in the right direction. Also, a massive congratulations to Isack and his team as I know what this result means to them.”

Explaining the issue Tsunoda suffered from in the closing stages of the race, Red Bull team boss Laurent Mekies revealed that it happened during the Japanese driver’s final pit stop.

On Lap 54, Tsunoda elected to pit for new tyres. As is routine, his engineer Richard Wood instructed him to switch into launch mode — “strat 12” — for the pit lane entry, with a reminder to revert to “strat 11” after the stop.

However, the Red Bull driver failed to revert to the standard race mode in the pit lane, and the sporting regulations do not allow drivers to make any changes to the engine mode later on. It meant that Tsunoda was locked in launch mode for the remainder of the race.

“We were locked into the wrong map after the final stop. He basically drove the final part with a really, really not friendly throttle map. We are stuck in the pedal map. It’s a very flat pedal up between 15% and 40%” revealed Mekies.

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