Red Bull Racing driver Yuki Tsunoda produced his best result of the season at the Azerbaijan Grand Prix.
Yuki Tsunoda started and finished the Azerbaijan Grand Prix in sixth place, representing his best performance since being promoted to Red Bull earlier in the season.
Tsunoda has been under increasing pressure at Red Bull, with concerns over his contribution to Red Bull’s constructors’ championship campaign.
Before Sunday’s race in Baku, Tsunoda had only scored nine points since replacing Liam Lawson at the Japanese Grand Prix.
His performances over recent months have led to growing speculation that Isack Hadjar might be promoted to Red Bull next season to drive alongside Max Verstappen.
| RANK | DRIVER | TEAM | POINTS |
| 1 | Max Verstappen | Red Bull | 25 |
| 2 | George Russell | Mercedes | 18 |
| 3 | Carlos Sainz | Williams | 15 |
| 4 | Kimi Antonelli | Mercedes | 12 |
| 5 | Liam Lawson | Racing Bulls | 10 |
| 6 | Yuki Tsunoda | Red Bull | 8 |
| 7 | Lando Norris | McLaren | 6 |
| 8 | Lewis Hamilton | Ferrari | 4 |
| 9 | Charles Leclerc | Ferrari | 2 |
| 10 | Isack Hadjar | Racing Bulls | 1 |
The Frenchman took his maiden F1 podium at the Dutch Grand Prix, while Tsunoda and Lawson are two of the five drivers left on the grid who have yet to record a top-three finish.
Tsunoda’s marked improvement in Baku was overshadowed by Lawson qualifying third and finishing fifth, but Ted Kravitz believes that the Japanese driver’s most recent outing has done his hopes of being on the grid in 2026 no harm at all.
Red Bull are expected to decide their driver line-ups for next year around the Mexico City Grand Prix, giving Tsunoda three more opportunities to impress Laurent Mekies and Helmut Marko.
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Ted Kravitz says Yuki Tsunoda is ‘probably’ returning to Racing Bulls in 2026
Kravitz was reflecting on all the action from Baku in Ted’s Notebook (21/9 3:20 pm) and saw Red Bull’s second driver walking through the paddock.
He said: “Here is Yuki. Yuki was brilliant today.
“And the real Yuki Tsunoda turned up again; he’s just been given a bracelet, but that’s a very solid P6 for Yuki Tsunoda.
“Very good stuff, so happy to see him back in the points for Red Bull, and hopefully that’s what’s going to cement him staying in the Red Bull driver program.
“Yes, he’s probably going to go back down to Racing Bulls next year. But, with more points positions like that, then he will be very much in that team with that man in the Racing Bulls anorak, and hopefully he’ll be there, because he’s doing a great job.”
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Lando Norris admits he could ‘barely keep up’ with ‘unbelievably fast’ Yuki Tsunoda
The final phase of the race saw Norris chasing down Tsunoda on fresher tyres to try and close the gap to his teammate Oscar Piastri in the championship after his crash on the opening lap.
Tsunoda has enough to fight for personally, but holding off Norris also gave Verstappen’s faint championship hopes a boost, with the Dutchman only 69 points behind Piastri with seven race weekends to go.
As quoted by journalist Adam Cooper, Norris admitted when speaking about his battle with Tsunoda: “I don’t think we were bad, but I could barely keep up with Tsunoda.
“There were parts of the track where the Red Bull was just unbelievably fast.
“I had no chance to keep up with him in some areas of the track. We clearly struggled a little bit this race.”
If Tsunoda does return to Racing Bulls, then the question for their team principal, Alan Permane, is whether to stick with Lawson or promote Arvid Lindblad.
Some Red Bull chiefs have concerns about Lawson’s conduct, but he’s improving on a race-by-race basis at this stage.
On the other hand, Lindblad is having a tough time in Formula 2 this year, and while that’s not always a good barometer of how well a driver will perform in F1, it might not do him any harm spending another year at that level, considering he’s only just turned 18.