Martin Brundle hails ‘tremendous’ 23-year-old F1 star in Abu Dhabi GP qualifying

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Sky Sports F1 pundit Martin Brundle has praised Yuki Tsunoda after his ‘tremendous’ qualifying effort after the AlphaTauri driver took P6 on the grid for the Abu Dhabi GP.

The 23-year-old reached Q3 for a Grand Prix for just the fourth time this year on Saturday. It also marked his best result this season at the finale with Tsunoda eclipsing his previous best of P8. The AlphaTauri driver took his previous best result for the Azerbaijan GP back in April.

Tsunoda had only reached Q3 in Baku along with in Monaco and for the Japanese GP before this weekend. He will now also hope to score points for only the sixth time in a Grand Prix on Sunday. The Kanagawa native may eclipse his best result of 2023 of P8 in the United States.

Tsunoda has his best qualifying of 2023 at the Abu Dhabi GP

Qualifying pace has proven scarce for AlphaTauri this season with the Faenza team boasting one of Formula 1’s slowest cars. But Tsunoda extracted the maximum from his machinery on Saturday. While teammate Daniel Ricciardo could qualify in just P15 with the slowest Q2 lap.

Tsunoda’s final flying qualifying lap of the season saw him run P5 before George Russell shot his Mercedes to P4. The Japanese gem’s best Q3 time was also just five-tenths of a second slower than Max Verstappen’s pole lap. It was also his best run of the day after finding gains.

Brundle praises the AlphaTauri driver after a superb Saturday

AlphaTauri star Tsunoda set a lap time more than two-tenths of a second faster than his best Q1 and Q2 runs in Q3 at the Abu Dhabi GP. His time sitting P5 on the board stunned Brundle as qualifying wound down. It bettered his P8 in Azerbaijan plus P9s in Monaco and in Japan.

“Tsunoda picks up P5,” Brundle said on Sky Sports F1 (25/11, 14:59). “That’s a tremendous effort from him.”

Tsunoda will now hope to turn his brilliant qualifying performance into a great Abu Dhabi GP on Sunday. The 2020 Formula 2 bronze medallist secured his best result of the season so far in the United States with P8. He has finished a Grand Prix in P9 once and in P10 three times.