AlphaTauri "don't understand" Red Bull Tsunoda ire

AlphaTauri team principal Franz Tost has come to the defence of driver Yuki Tsunoda stating the Japanese "deliberately" left the track in qualifying.

As drivers completed their final Q3 runs at the Mexico City Grand Prix on Saturday, both Sergio Perez and Max Verstappen saw their pole attempts end after being "Tsunoda'd".

Despite criticism from Red Bull team principal Christian Horner as well as Perez and Verstappen however, Tost backed his driver and claimed he had done nothing wrong.

“We said to him on the radio that the Red Bulls were coming and he just went off the track so they could pass easily and Perez followed him. It is not Yuki’s fault.”

“No, he didn’t make a mistake, he did it deliberately," said Tost.

"We said to him the Red Bull’s were coming, that Perez was coming, and he deliberately went to the side so as not to disturb them and not to be in front of them.

“I absolutely don’t understand why Perez went also off the track there. Yuki went to the side as all the drivers do in qualifying to make space for the cars which are coming behind on a qualifying lap.

“He was not on a qualifying lap. It is as easy as that, therefore I don’t understand anything about this.”

After taking a number of new power unit elements for the weekend, Tsunoda already faced a back of the grid penalty and will start from P17 ahead of drivers with the same punishment.

Explaining why Tsunoda had taken to the track in the climactic moments of the session, Tost added: “He gives some tow to Pierre [Gasly].

"It is as easy as that, and we wanted to be in front of Norris, so two things why he was out.”

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