Yuki Tsunoda crashes in Saudi Arabian GP session as immediate health update issued

crashed during the second free practice session at the , bringing out the red flag. The Japanese racer offered an immediate update on his health, confirming that he was "okay" on the radio. Tsunoda was pushing on his soft-compound tyre run when he clipped the inside wall on the entry into the final corner. This broke the left-front axle and caused him to lose steering, sending him careening towards the outside wall for a second impact.

The 24-year-old hopped onto the radio after the impact to declare himself "okay" before apologising to his engineers. The crash left debris scattered across the track and forced the marshals to throw the red flag. The FP2 session was eventually resumed with just over one minute left on the clock.

Discussing his crash in the media pen, he said: "I just turned in too much and clipped the inside wall and had damage. After that, [I had] just no control, so yeah, apologies to the team. Pace was looking good, so [it is a] shame."

Asked about his confidence level ahead of the Saudi Arabian GP, Tsunoda continued: "I mean, the confidence level is pretty good. I mean, the last soft run was a bit compromised with the warm-up and everything, but so far, pretty okay. I mean, I got limited time with the long run, which I caused by myself, so I can't really complain. I definitely wanted to end it in a nicer way, for sure."

This incident was a blow to Tsunoda, who came into the weekend at the Jeddah Corniche Circuit in a buoyant mood. The Kanagawa-born racer was impressively close to team-mate Max Verstappen in Bahrain last time out, scoring a P9 finish to record his first points with the Red Bull team.

Tsunoda also made headlines when he claimed that he could beat Verstappen, provided he gets more comfortable in the cockpit of the RB21. "It's my first time driving a completely different car - I only drove with for the last four years, so it's the first time I drove a completely different team's car," he explained.

"I'm trying to use that, and I know that if I unlock that area, I would be able to probably beat him [Verstappen]. I know myself that I can't beat him straight away, so I'm just trying to build a good baseline and wait for the moment that I can be in the shape, yeah."

If Tsunoda can even match Verstappen's results, this would be an immense achievement in his first season with Red Bull. Pierre Gasly, Alex Albon and Sergio Perez were all well-beaten by the four-time world champion and suffered significant reputational damage in the process.