Yuki Tsunoda walked away unscathed from a massive crash that brought qualifying at Imola to a dramatic halt on Saturday.
The Red Bull man lost control on taking too much kerb at the Villeneuve chicane, his car hurtling across the run-off area, spinning backwards into the tyre barrier and catch fence, flipping upside down, before righting itself to finish stricken in the gravel.
Tsunoda was driven to the medical centre for checks – the halo having saved him from possible serious harm as he was bounced headfirst towards the ground.
A 15-minute delay to the first qualifying session ensued as the track was cleared.
The sport has headed to Imola in Italy for the seventh race of the 2025 season, with Lando Norris and Lewis Hamilton looking to put things right amid their early-season struggles.
Norris hasn’t won since the first race of the season in Australia, while Hamilton has had a nightmare start to life at Ferrari and has been looking to get things going in red.
💥 ¡¡¡HA VOLCADO TSUNODA!!!
Escalofriante. Bendito halo.#F1 #ImolaGP 🇮🇹 pic.twitter.com/XHIzyu5O4I
— Fórmula Directa (@FormulaDirecta) May 17, 2025
While McLaren already look set to win the constructors’ title again, Red Bull continue to struggle after Max Vertsappen saw team-mate Liam Lawson replaced by Tsunoda after early season struggles.
Tsunoda, meanwhile, has also found it hard going, and suffered potentially the worst moment of his Red Bull career so far on Saturday afternoon when his car flipped in the brutal crash.
Commentator and former Red Bull driver David Coulthard said: ‘Big, big crash there. It looks to me as if he got aggressive, more aggressive than we have seen from any card on that left-hand part turn five on the kerb.’
He went onto credit the barriers and catch fence for contributing to there seemingly being no injury.
Former mechanic Marc Priestley, meanwhile, said on BBC Radio 5 Sports Extra: ‘Tsunoda’s car did a complete 360. It landed upside down before the car then righted itself coming off the barriers.
‘There’s a huge amount of damage to the car and the barriers. That will all need repairing as well.’
Racing Bulls driver Lawson was one of several shocked drivers. ‘Oh my God!’ he exclaimed. ‘I just saw the video. Is he OK?’
Alpine’s Franco Colapinto, on his first outing for the French team after replacing Jack Doohan, also crashed out of Q1. The Argentine was unharmed.
