Yuki Tsunoda baffled after Dutch GP qualifying as pressure never higher

Despite feeling more confident and running an upgraded floor, Yuki Tsunoda was left confused by a Q2 exit at the Dutch GP

Yuki Tsunoda was baffled following qualifying for the 2025 Dutch Grand Prix. Despite feeling more confident in the Red Bull car this weekend, his Saturday ended with a Q2 exit, with the driver qualifying 12th for tomorrow's race.

This comes as the driver faces mounting pressure at the Milton Keynes outfit, with adviser Helmut Marko confirming to ORF that he will have until "around Mexico" to prove himself worthy of a seat beside reigning champion Max Verstappen.

His result in qualifying left him almost a full second behind polesitter Oscar Piastri and almost seven tenths behind his team-mate.

"I was expecting more, honestly," he said. "The confidence I had in the car was pretty good and I was able to control the car more than ever in any other grand prix, so to be honest, it doesn't really stack up with the feeling I had in the car and the lap time."

Despite a recent floor upgrade that brought his car closer to that of Verstappen's, Tsunoda couldn't translate the improved spec of his car into performance.

Yuki Tsunoda, Red Bull Racing Team

Photo by: Joe Portlock / LAT Images via Getty Images

"Yeah, it's very strange, very strange," he continued. "Honestly, I didn't have any mistakes and I was also working hard quite a lot to gaining every single milliseconds from maybe every corner and also how I progressed throughout the week or processed with the engineers, so I'm happy with it.

"But I didn't show really much in the qualifying, the lap time," he explained before adding that the upgrade has had a positive change on his machinery while also allowing him to directly compare his data with the Dutchman's.

"Yeah, it's positive. Like, at least you know where I'm lacking and where I'm gaining. I don't know. Practice was pretty competitive with Max, there's something I gained some corners he gain some corners.

"I have to check the lap time over data, but it doesn't really stack up what I was having previously and the lap time I done."

There is intense pressure on the Japanese driver as he fights to prove his worth in the Milton Keynes outfit. With seven race weekends yielding no points, Tsunoda needs to show signs of something clicking if he wants to stay at Red Bull beyond 2025.