As soon as the Sprint race at the Azerbaijan GP took off, AlphaTauri’s Yuki Tsunoda found himself with a fractured front wing and without the right rear wheel. The safety car was deployed right in the first lap of the race as a single tire was spotted rolling down the Baku streets.
As hilarious as it seemed to the fans they were quick to post hilarious reactions on Twitter. Meanwhile, Tsunoda went back to his pits as his team changed the front wing of his car as well as the rear tire.
One fan was quick to point out that the lonely tire on the track looked like the end of the movie – Rubber.
That lonely tyre looked like the trailer of that movie Rubber 😭 #F1 #AzerbaijanGP pic.twitter.com/86jJdzVchk
— Mary (@maryyasmine) April 29, 2023
Fans give comic reaction to Yuki Tsunoda’s Misery
While Tsunoda had to go back to the pits after he was going very slowly, fans could not hold back their funny remarks on the incident. In doing so, one of the fans took a brutal swipe at his teammate saying that even the lonely tire was, moving faster than Nyck De Vries.
Tsunoda’s rogue tyre is also lapping faster than de Vries. #BakuGP #AzerbaijanGP pic.twitter.com/dGojww3M0i
— Mike Smith (@MikeSnoozing) April 29, 2023
Tsunoda had been back out for a little while after the pit stop but the team soon realized that there was some sort of suspension damage at the rear wheel. Therefore he had to head back and retired from the Sprint session.
Tsunoda’s rogue tyre is also lapping faster than de Vries. #BakuGP #AzerbaijanGP pic.twitter.com/dGojww3M0i
— Mike Smith (@MikeSnoozing) April 29, 2023
Other fans also found parallels with some other meme templates and did not hesitate to share them on the internet.
That tyre really said… #F1 #AzerbaijanGP pic.twitter.com/0rrrcjLsKc
— Nienke🏁 (@avoidingtmrw) April 29, 2023
LMAO. YUKI YOU FORGOT YOUR TYRE! #AzerbaijanGP #F1Sprint pic.twitter.com/hXvJ9mImUh
— Aizat H (@aizatbh) April 29, 2023
Under the new rules that tyre is now third in the championship and starts the race in 8th place tomorrow #f1 #AzerbaijanGP
— For F1’s Sake Pod (@forf1ssake) April 29, 2023
What happened to Yuki Tsunoda?
It was only in the early stages of the race when Tsunoda crashed and lost any chances to finish within the points. The Japanese driver understeered at Turn 15 which led him to collide with the barriers.
He suffered damage to the nose of the car and lost the rear tire. Even after he got his car fixed in the pits, Tsunoda could not carry on with the race after he was found driving too slowly and eventually retired.
According to Sports Illustrated, in the aftermath of the incident, the stewards revealed that they would be investigating why Tsunoda was released back to the track with an unfit car. The results of this could also lead to a race penalty for the main race tomorrow. Furthermore, it is unclear if the AlphaTauri driver suffered a puncture before he collided.
