How Tsunoda seized on Stroll’s “frickin’ horrible race” · RaceFans

Opportunities for Formula 1’s lower five teams to score championship points have proved few and far between this year.

With the top half of the field holding the performance advantage, the 10 drivers of the fastest five cars should occupy the top ten positions in the race, provided they have no mishaps.

Last weekend in Suzuka the only one of the 10 to miss out Aston Martin driver Lance Stroll. Instead, Japan’s Yuki Tsunoda snatched the last points-paying position to delight his home fans, his family in attendance and his RB team.

Why did Stroll miss what should have been his minimum target for the weekend? The answer lies in the midfield melee. While Stroll got stuck in a DRS train, Tsunoda’s RB mechanics helped him to break free of it – which transformed his race.

Race start and red flag

After reaching Q3, Tsunoda started 10th with team mate Daniel Ricciardo behind him, both on the medium compound tyres. But behind the RBs was a pack of rivals all on soft tyres, including Stroll in 16th.

The RBs were swamped by those on softer rubber, with Tsunoda dropping three places. Stroll was looking up the inside of the other RB into turn three when Ricciardo drifted into Alexander Albon’s Williams to his outside, sending both into the tyre wall and out of the race, causing enough of a mess that the race was red-flagged.

For the restart, RB put Tsunoda on soft tyres instead. He used them to split the Mercedes of Lewis Hamilton and George Russell in ninth place, while Stroll was behind Esteban Ocon – who picked up damage in a clash with his team mate – and Valtteri Bottas.