Red Bull’s Yuki Tsunoda has been formally warned and his team fined €10,000 after an impeding incident with Lando Norris in FP3 at the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix — a scruffy moment that briefly sent the McLaren into the run-off before qualifying day had even found its rhythm.
The flashpoint came on the approach to Turn 12, the slow right-hander that feeds into the hotel section at Yas Marina. Norris arrived at speed and found Tsunoda trundling at the apex, prompting the McLaren to jink into the escape road to avoid contact. Tsunoda responded with the universal paddock apology — an arm out of the cockpit — but both drivers were called to see the stewards after the session.
The decision was blunt. Red Bull got the fine for failing to warn their driver of an approaching McLaren, and Tsunoda received a formal warning for driving slowly in a part of the track where that’s simply not on.
In their verdict, the stewards outlined how the situation unfolded. Norris hadn’t looked like he was on a push lap early in the run, which Red Bull took at face value. But when the McLaren picked up the pace and committed to a fast lap, the GPS made it obvious he was closing fast on the Red Bull — obvious enough, the stewards said, that the team should have spotted it and told Tsunoda. They didn’t, and the gap vanished where you least want it to.
“Car 4 was rapidly gaining on Car 22,” the stewards noted, pointing out that Red Bull “had ample time” to warn Tsunoda. Even so, they added, the driver shouldn’t have been “in that track position on a slow lap.”
It’s the sort of thing that infuriates drivers and engineers alike, especially at Yas Marina where prep laps stack up and everyone’s fighting for clear air before the hotel complex. This one didn’t end in carbon fiber, but it was untidy enough to attract the usual attention — and the fine. Ten grand is pocket change in Milton Keynes, yet the message lands clearly with the driver: keep it tidy in low-speed zones, even if your pit wall misses a cue.
For Tsunoda, in the Red Bull alongside Max Verstappen this season, the warning comes at a time when track discipline is under a brighter spotlight and the margins for error feel thinner than ever. For Norris, it was a near-miss that cost him a clean run in final practice — and a reminder that traffic management in Abu Dhabi can unravel quickly when plans change mid-lap.
The broader takeaway is familiar. The FIA wants teams on top of their communications, drivers alert to changing situations, and that delicate dance between prep laps and push laps executed without drama. When it isn’t, the penalties now arrive swiftly.
Qualifying will be a different beast, but watch that Turn 9-to-12 sequence as the sun drops. If timing lines and tow games get spicy, it won’t be the last time we see tempers fray under the hotel lights.
