Helmut Marko: Tsunoda was able to improve.

      In Friday's sprint qualifying in Qatar, Yuki Tsunoda beat Max Verstappen for the first time this season. The Japanese driver's result pleased Red Bull motorsport advisor Helmut Marko, and he even praised Yuki.

      "If you remember the Las Vegas round, Yuki was already very close to Max, but we made a mistake with the tyre pressures," Helmut Marko said after sprint qualifying. "Because of that he was knocked out in the first part of qualifying, which ruined his whole weekend. However, his speed has steadily increased. Tsunoda was able to step up, and he became more involved in the work, more interested in the technical side of things."

      When Marko was asked whether Tsunoda's performance in Qatar would play any role in the decision on the 2026 line-up, he replied: "We often said that we would make a decision after this weekend, so everything will be known next week."

      Marko also commented on Max Verstappen's result, explaining the reigning world champion's deficit by problems with the soft tyres: "We found a solution for the Medium tyres and were fully competitive on that compound. But with the Softs the same problems occurred as in practice. In that regard Max's situation was even worse than Yuki's.

      We set the cars up differently. Max wanted more downforce on the front wheels, Yuki on the rear. Apparently, the adjustments we made to Yuki's car worked.

      It's good that in the race and in the sprint we will use Mediums, not Softs. I hope we'll cope better on Saturday."