Yuki Tsunoda, AlphaTauri, Interlagos, 2021

Tsunoda given two penalty points for collision with Stroll

2021 Sao Paulo Grand Prix

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Rookie driver Yuki Tsunoda has been given two penalty points on his licence after a collision with Lance Stroll early in the São Paulo Grand Prix.

The incident happened on the fourth lap of the race, while Tsunoda – the only driver to start on the soft compound tyres – was trying to overtake Stroll for 13th position into the first left-hander in the Senna ‘S’ complex (turns one through three). This resulted in a broken front wing for Tsunoda, and floor damage on the left side for Stroll.

The race stewards (Tim Mayer, Matteo Perini, Vitantonio Liuzzi, and Roberto Moreno) made the following remarks in their statement (Document number 45) published after the race: “The Stewards reviewed the video evidence and determined that [Tsunoda] caused a collision with car 18 [Stroll].”

“Car 22 was slipstreaming car 18 along the front straight and was considerably faster on the inside at turn one. However, he braked too late and collided with car 18 in this optimistic manoeuvre. The Stewards find him wholly at fault.”

After the contact, and a pit stop to change his damaged front wing, Tsunoda was given a ten second time penalty during the race. Tsunoda would go on to finish outside the points in 15th, a lap behind race winner Lewis Hamilton and a minute behind AlphaTauri team mate Pierre Gasly.

This puts Tsunoda at six penalty points on his superlicence. Any driver must serve a one-race ban if they accrue twelve points within a calendar year. Tsunoda will not have any penalty points deducted until 18 April 2022.

Pieces of bodywork came off of Stroll’s Aston Martin later in the race, requiring a Virtual Safety Car to clear the debris. The Canadian driver would go on to retire after 47 laps from the damage inflicted to his car.

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RJ O'Connell
Motorsport has been a lifelong interest for RJ, both virtual and ‘in the carbon’, since childhood. RJ picked up motorsports writing as a hobby...

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10 comments on “Tsunoda given two penalty points for collision with Stroll”

  1. Was Stroll’s retirement linked to the collision. Didn’t seem like it.

    I wasn’t expecting Tsunoda to get a penalty, not because he didn’t deserve it. But he already got penalized via an unscheduled pitstop. Adding another 10 seconds was quite a lot. May be 5 seconds would have been better or none at all.

  2. His passing attempt on Stroll was clumsy anyway, so failure was unsurprising.

    1. Clumsy? No. Bold? Yes. He was in control. As he came to the apex he gave Stroll the maximum amount of room. You can’t tell me that Stroll didn’t see him coming.
      If it was a more experienced driver along side other than Stroll there would have been no collision. Riccardo, Alonso, Hamilton. They know that when someone is being aggressive to give room. Its not worth being taken out.
      But he’s a rookie, they have to try to make him more civil with penalties. I understand. That’s what f1 is these days. If it was him on the outside and a veteran on the inside he would have been penalized for causing a collision.

  3. Tsunoda has messed up Red Bull again today, the safety car meant Max lost the 3-4 second advantage they had at the time.

  4. The Alpha Tauri car is a good enough machine to fight with Ferrari and Mclaren. What the team needs is another consistent point scorer like Gasly.

  5. Not worthy of a penalty at all. Bad call.

    1. Its a worthy Penalty and whats worse is this person doesnt learn from mistakes and keeps using profane language against fellow drivers. What an overrated joke of driver probably worse than Mazespin.

      1. I couldn’t disagree with you any more if I tried.

    2. Agree. He left plenty of room. You can’t tell me that Stroll didn’t see him coming. A smart driver would have stayed outside of Tsunoda. There was plenty of room.
      But this is F1. If it was Tsunoda on the outside, he would have got penalized as well. It’s political and they punish who they want.

  6. This guy needs to start scoring. He has only 3more points than Russell (yes I know spa was the majority of points for Russell) as the car is fighting for 5th in constructors. Gasly can’t do it alone.

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