You couldn’t miss it, it was everywhere. Yuki Tsunoda is obviously the subject of a cult in his country. He, the Honda protégé, is an idol at Suzuka, home of the Japanese manufacturer’s test track. An entire stand, at the bottom of the straight, was dedicated to him, with huge portraits of the tiny driver (1.61 m).
In the circuit stands, t-shirts, caps and other trinkets bearing ideograms bearing his name, with or without Sakura, these trinkets which delight the Japanese – and the temple’s merchants – were more than profitable.
Daring overtaking
The Japanese’s slightest gesture was scrutinized and celebrated. Applauded after leaving his stand for the grid, what would happen if he started to shine. His compatriots are much less exuberant than him, so there were no sake drinks at the finish.
However, his race was impressive, even if the driver, tenth in qualifying, ultimately finished in the same position. His overtaking, outside the Esses, is the work of a master as the exercise is in these ultra-fast and dangerous tricky sequences.
Add to this a magnificent stop which allows Tsunoda to gain two places and you will understand his joy at the finish, especially since, for once, the Japanese from the distant suburbs of Tokyo was much less angry than angry. ordinary.
“That tenth place, maybe I shouldn’t say it like that, but I feel like I finished first”
“This tenth place, maybe I shouldn’t say it like that but I feel like I finished first,” he enthused. The pit stops were very fast and I returned to the track in front of my direct competitors at an important moment. So congratulations to the team but also to the Japanese fans. All weekend, the energy I was able to receive thanks to them, it’s a special feeling. We were better than the others in the first sector so I had the confidence to try attacks on the outside (of turn 6). It reminds me of when Kamui (Kobayashi) was overtaking at turn 11.”
Sunday evening, unlike Kobayashi, there was no pallet truck demonstration, as in 2012. The ex-Sauber driver had, it is true, finished on the podium (3rd). Tsunoda is the strength of Racing Bulls, the team’s seven-point man. His teammate Daniel Ricciardo did not see the end of the first lap, the victim of a collision with Albon’s Williams.