Yuki Tsunoda says he nearly had a “heart attack” when his AlphaTauri team ordered him to pit with just two laps to go in last Sunday’s US Grand Prix.
The Japanses driver was running just inside the points after a solid drive and looking forward to scoring his fourth top-ten finish of the season.
When he got the call to box, he immediately suspected that something was wrong with his car, but then realized that his team was keen on him snatching the fastest lap bonus point, an opportunity created by a track limits time penalty handed to his pursuer Alex Albon, which gave Tsunoda the margin to undertake a free pit stop and a switch to a fresh set of softs. .
The plan worked like a charm, allowing the AlphaTauri charger to double his point tally on the final lap of the race.
But initially, there was a moment of panic inside the cockpit of the #22 AlphaTauri.
"To be honest, I got a heart attack when I had to box," said Tsunoda. "Because I thought it was something like an issue from the engine.
"After I heard we go for fastest lap, okay, then I was relieved, but still a bit of pressure on, and we were able to still get the fastest lap, so it was good."
Tsunoda’s efforts on the day also benefitted from the post-race exclusions of Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc that bumped him up to P8 in the race’s final standings, allowing him to collect a total of five points, therefore doubling his year-to-date tally.
©AlphaTauri
Chasing the fastest lap bonus point has often been the privilege of those running at the front. But Tsunoda was more than happy to give the feat a shot for the very first time.
"Yeah, probably first experience going for fastest lap in the last lap," he said.
"Super enjoyed it, obviously after a lot of managing tyres, straight into the quali mode, this was kind of thrilling, but at the same time I enjoyed it, the amount of grip I felt with low fuel is amazing.
"Obviously for myself it was 100%, from the engine it was not probably 100%, we weren't able to fully recharge the battery or whatever. But yeah, for myself at least 100% last push.
"Especially here, it's a physically demanding track. It's pretty hard, but just re-focus and actually be able to kind of improve quite a big, big chunk of time. So it was good."
Although he recognized that he had lucked in to his additional points, Tsunoda reckoned that P10 or thereabouts was where his team should be on merit following its recent update efforts.
"Yeah, definitely, I thank especially the people who work in the background in Faenza and Bicester and try to improve our package as much as possible race-by-race," he said.
"We're making progress little by little, and definitely I felt we're getting closer towards P10.
"So if we look at this race still I had a bit of luck towards the end to score points. But anything can happen like this race. So we tried to be around P10 and get the points as much as possible race-by-race."
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