{"id":147384,"date":"2025-05-31T17:46:09","date_gmt":"2025-05-31T17:46:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/147384\/"},"modified":"2025-05-31T17:46:09","modified_gmt":"2025-05-31T17:46:09","slug":"tsunoda-under-pressure-after-new-red-bull-driver-hits-bottom-of-qualifying-in-spain","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/147384\/","title":{"rendered":"Tsunoda under pressure after new Red Bull driver hits bottom of qualifying in Spain"},"content":{"rendered":"

MONTMELO, Spain (AP) \u2014 Yuki Tsunoda is under immense pressure to turn things around after the new Red Bull driver bottomed out in qualifying for the Spanish Grand Prix<\/a> on Saturday.<\/p>\n

Tsunoda will start his seventh race for Red Bull from ignominious last place. Only a massive drive on Sunday will get him back into the points.<\/p>\n

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The Japanese driver was promoted from Red Bull\u2019s junior Racing Bulls team after the season was already underway.<\/p>\n

Red Bull made the stunning decision after only two rounds to drop Liam Lawson as the teammate of Formula 1<\/a> champion Max Verstappen<\/a>. Lawson crashed out of the season-opening Australian Grand Prix<\/a> and qualified in last place for the Chinese Grand Prix<\/a> and its sprint race.<\/p>\n

Now it is the 25-year-old Tsunoda who needs to show he’s capable in the Red Bull seat after four previous seasons with the junior team.<\/p>\n

Tsunoda was at a loss to explain why he and his team can\u2019t get it right.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhatever I do, every lap, even like a long run was a good example, just whatever I do, nothing happens,\u201d Tsunoda said. \u201cIt doesn\u2019t really stack up \u2026 I don\u2019t know what it is, and I can\u2019t really have any answer to that.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Red Bull\u2019s second seat is, naturally, constantly compared to Verstappen, and has become something of a poisoned chalice.<\/p>\n

The experienced Sergio P\u00e9rez struggled<\/a> as Verstappen\u2019s partner and his performance dipped so much last season that Red Bull lost to McLaren the constructors’ title even though Verstappen won a fourth straight drivers’ title.<\/p>\n

Tsunoda\u2019s best finish so far was ninth in Bahrain. He finished last week\u2019s Monaco GP in 17th.<\/p>\n

Verstappen will start Sunday’s Spanish GP from third, behind pole sitter Oscar Piastri and his McLaren teammate Lando Norris.<\/p>\n

___<\/p>\n

AP auto racing: https:\/\/apnews.com\/hub\/auto-racing<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"MONTMELO, Spain (AP) \u2014 Yuki Tsunoda is under immense pressure to turn things around after the new Red…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":147385,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4103],"tags":[63287,35834,4199,707,4200,1073,226,27196,79,16,15,860],"class_list":{"0":"post-147384","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-f1","8":"tag-australian-grand-prix","9":"tag-chinese-grand-prix","10":"tag-f1","11":"tag-formula-1","12":"tag-formula1","13":"tag-max-verstappen","14":"tag-red-bull","15":"tag-spanish-grand-prix","16":"tag-sports","17":"tag-uk","18":"tag-united-kingdom","19":"tag-yuki-tsunoda"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114603699934629847","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/147384","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=147384"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/147384\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/147385"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=147384"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=147384"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=147384"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}