Yuki Tsunoda crashes in Jeddah FP2, but Christian Horner encouraged by his progress. Yuki Tsunoda crashes during FP2 in Jeddah while running a race simulation.

With eight minutes remaining in the second free practice session of the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix, Yuki Tsunoda made a mistake and hit the wall at Turn 13.

The Japanese Red Bull driver misjudged the corner entry, clipped the inside wall, and broke the steering arm. The subsequent impact with the outside barriers was unavoidable.

Yuki Tsunoda’s RB21 suffered mainly front-end damage: both front suspensions, the front wing, and the nose. Red Bull hopes the floor is undamaged. In the meantime, Yuki apologized to the team for the mistake: “It’s all my fault,” he said. However, the progress he’s made in recent weeks is evident.

The sixth-fastest time in FP2, just four-tenths off Max Verstappen (who was third), is clear proof of how the Japanese driver is building confidence in a car Liam Lawson struggled to handle.

“It was a shame to end the session early. I clipped the inside wall, and after that, there was nothing I could do. Up to that point, everything felt good. I had a decent feeling with the car.”

“My final push lap was affected by the tyre warm-up — that could’ve been better. But overall, everything’s going well. Unfortunately, my mistake prevented us from completing the race run, so I can’t complain about anything. It’s my fault. I just wish I had finished the session better.”

“I think we’re in a good place over a single lap. It’s just a shame about the tyre preparation, but in terms of qualifying pace, things are looking okay.”

Red Bull team principal Christian Horner didn’t comment specifically on the extent of the damage to the RB21 but made it clear he was pleased with Yuki Tsunoda’s performance despite his limited time in the car.

“Until we get the car back to the garage, we won’t know exactly what’s damaged. Hopefully the floor is fine. He’s definitely broken both front suspensions and the front wing. Yuki was doing a race simulation and made a mistake, but up to that point he’d been driving very well. We can see his confidence is growing, and that’s great to see. He’s making progress, and that’s what we want. He had already shown good pace over one lap, and it’s a shame he ended up in the wall. But it shows how hard everyone is pushing.” – the Red Bull team boss concluded at the end of FP2 in Jeddah.