"I have ticked the box," claims Tsunoda after his first Q3 appearance with Red Bull

On the back of a difficult debut weekend with Red Bull in Japan, Yuki Tsunoda secured his first Q3 appearance in Bahrain which will see him start from P10 on the grid in Sakhir.

Following his tough debut with Red Bull at last weekend's Japanese Grand Prix, Yuki Tsunoda bounced back in Bahrain to secure his first Q3 appearance with Red Bull.

Reflecting on his qualifying day, Tsunoda did not deny that he had been struggling across the practice sessions as he still finds it difficult to stay in the working window of his RB21.

“I have ticked the box of reaching Q3 and that is the first step for me. I think it was good execution, I had the red flag in Q1 with no time set and then I only had one set to make it through to Q3. I am reasonably happy, although P10 is not always the place as a driver that you want to be.

"It was a good recovery from practice, I will take it for sure, it could be a lot worse, considering the struggles I had in FP3. It is just hard to find the performance in this car and I am still learning how to do it best. It requires a lot of concentration to stay in the window this car needs to perform."

Pushed on to reveal what he thinks of his new car, the RB21, the Japanese driver insisted that his new machine has a very narrow window in which in works.

"It was not the easiest car today, you saw that with Max qualifying P7, which is unusual. We just have to, as a Team, make a step forward and I need to keep working hard. I think I have made some progress so far with the Team; it is step by step and only my second race with the Team. I didn’t get a great long run in practice but I have some confidence for tomorrow to move forward.

"At least Max and I are starting semi-close to each other in position so we may be able to do something different with the strategy. I will try to finish as close to him as possible. I want to score points and do lots of overtaking, that is my passion! I will do my best."