Yuki Tsunoda Admits To Having 'Lots Of Emotions' After Surprise Azerbaijan Grand Prix Display

Speaking to RacingNews365 after the race concluded, Tsunoda revealed that it had tempted him to take more risk during the race - but he ultimately decided against it.

"I had a lot of emotions [convincing me] that I wanted to overtake, and [do] some hero thing, some [heroic] stuff in overtaking, but yeah, [I had to] slow down."Tsunoda on his race strategy

His thoughts were mainly directed at the situation with Liam Lawson, who just managed to squeeze past the man who replaced him at Red Bull after Tsunoda's 20.3 second pit stop.

"If I had been able to rejoin two metres faster, probably I would have been able to keep Liam [Lawson] behind."Tsunoda on his pit stop

The 25-year-old also stated to media that he was extremely proud of how he raced, and that he was happy the result was with Red Bull.

"I feel like I have unlocked something that I can take into future races. We've put together a strong weekend here in Azerbaijan, where we showed the performance that we've wanted to for a long time. So, scoring my best result with the team feels deserved."

Red Bull team boss Laurent Mekies praises 'very strong' Tsunoda

Laurent Mekies was quick to praise his Japanese racer post-race, stating:

"Yuki [Tsunoda] had a very strong race, keeping the McLaren and Ferrari behind him. He needed a clean weekend and he performed really well scoring important points for the Team in what is his best result of the season.”

Tsunoda's performance now takes him to 17th in the standings, two places above his standing after the Italian Grand Prix and now ahead of Ollie Bearman and Gabriel Bortoleto.

Rather surprisingly, the driver he replaced at Red Bull earlier in the season, Liam Lawson, is ten points ahead of Tsunoda in the standings, with the Kiwi having 30 compared to Tsunoda's 20 after he scored a strong fifth-place result.