“If I couldn’t overtake him, I can’t sleep all night”- Yuki Tsunoda on last lap battle in Bahrain

“If I couldn’t overtake him I can’t sleep all night”- Yuki Tsunoda revealed his desperation to defeat Lance Stroll during Bahrain GP’s last lap.

Yuki Tsunoda, with an impressive Formula 1 debut, left a long-lasting impression of himself. However, he didn’t have a great start to the weekend in Bahrain. But if the end’s well, then everything’s well.

One of the key highlights of his performance is how he overtook Lance Stroll to ensure two points for his team, which made him the first Japanese driver to score points on their F1 debut.

“The last stint, I think, was the best one for me, also in tyre management,” he said. “I think for me, it was a good pace compared to the other two stints.”

“I passed Stroll at the last lap in the first corner. It was a really late launch, but I decided that if I couldn’t overtake him, I can’t sleep all night tonight!”

“So I struggled really the last two laps, especially in dirty air from him. I made quite a lot of mistakes. So I’m thrilled to pass him in the last lap.

“Happy, but also a bit disappointed, I think, especially because I thought I lost too many positions in the first lap. Also, it took time to recover the positions.”

Maybe I am aiming too high.

Tsunoda then asked whether he would been angry if he had gained a position below P9, and the Japanese also agreed that he keeps extra expectations.

“Yeah, maybe I’m aiming too high, maybe before this race! But for me, I just saw that my teammate was doing a better job in the qualifying, and I was aiming for there, so of course, I’m not a hundred per cent happy.

“But as I say, I’m happy to get points first race, because that is a really positive thing for the team. So I’m not really disappointed. But I would say that I’ve learned a lot of things in this race, obviously.”

About the author

Tanish Chachra

Tanish Chachra is the Motorsport editor at The SportsRush. He saw his first race when F1 visited India in 2011, and since then, his romance with the sport has been seasonal until he took up this role in 2020. Reigniting F1's coverage on this site, Tanish has fallen in love with the sport all over again. He loves Kimi Raikkonen and sees a future world champion in Oscar Piastri. Away from us, he loves to snuggle inside his books.

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