Formula 1’s Saudi Arabian Grand Prix will feature only 18 starters after a sighting lap failure for AlphaTauri’s Yuki Tsunoda.
Tsunoda was set to start from last place on the grid at Jeddah after he was unable to set a lap time in Q1 due to a water system issue.
On his way to the dummy grid Tsunoda’s AlphaTauri AT03 stopped at Turn 4 and he cited an engine issue.
After remaining in the car for a short period of time he was told by his race engineer “Yuki, that’s the end” and he climbed out of the AT03.
It marks another reliability problem for AlphaTauri following Tsunoda’s Saturday failure and Pierre Gasly’s retirement in Bahrain.
Tsunoda’s exit reduces the size of the grid to 18 drivers following Haas withdrawing Mick Schumacher’s car after his hefty Q2 accident.
