Yuki Tsunoda had one of his best qualifying sessions of the season on Saturday in his home grand prix, placing his Honda-powered AlphaTauri ninth on the grid for Sunday’s race at Suzuka Circuit.
Perhaps buoyed by a freshly inked contract for the 2024 season with AlphaTauri, the Kanagawa Prefecture native thrilled the home fans by posting the seventh-best lap time in Q2, 0.3 seconds ahead of his teammate and in front of the likes of Fernando Alonso and George Russell. He dropped two places in the final session of the day, outpacing two-time Formula One champion Alonso with a lap time of 1:30.303 but still sitting well off the pace of the front-runners.
"To be honest I didn't expect this, but at the same time the amount of support I got today from the fans was crazy," Tsunoda said.