Tsunoda FURY as Sargeant crash causes F1 Sprint heartbreak

Dan Davis
Saturday 29 April 2023 11:17 - Updated: 11:24

Yuki Tsunoda reacted furiously after Logan Sargeant crashed his Williams in Baku Sprint qualifying and inadvertently denied the AlphaTauri racer a spot in SQ2.

Sargeant was quick enough to seal his own place in the second stage of the shorter shootout on Saturday but after attempting to improve on his final flying lap, he lost control of his car and made contact with the wall.

The collision meant his Williams sustained significant damage on its right-hand side, leaving the mechanics sweating ahead of the Sprint showpiece.

Unfortunately for the bottom five at the time, the session was red-flagged. And to further pile on the misery, as there was less than a minute left in SQ1, the session was not restarted, meaning the five slowest cars were eliminated.

This proved to be particularly chastening for Tsunoda, who found himself just a few meters adrift of the finish line before the red flags were hoisted. His lap did not count, forcing the 22-year-old to settle for 18th on the Sprint grid.

Red mist descends

Unsurprisingly, he let loose a bellow of anger after being alerted to the premature halt.

"No!" he screamed. "Are you f****** kidding me?"

Pierre Gasly also found himself in the bottom five after suffering from yet more mechanical issues, while Tsunoda's team-mate Nyck de Vries propped up the pile.

Alfa Romeo duo Zhou Guanyu and Valtteri Bottas also missed out on SQ2.

READ MORE: Yuki Tsunoda 'surprised' by SHOCK AlphaTauri announcement