The Japanese rookie spun out and fell on the high-speed left-hand bend in Turn 4 15 minutes before the start of FP1 and hit the guardrail with the rear of his AlphaTauri car.
While Tsunoda escaped the accident, the rear of his car was left with significant damage, meaning his crew would spend most of the afternoon doing repairs.
It limited Tsunoda to just one timed lap at the very end of FP2, so the 21-year-old was on his way back to the race on Saturday.
Tsunoda took full blame for the mistake and praised his mechanics for doing a “really good job” to complete the repairs so he could get off even one lap in practice two.
“I think at this point the car feels very nervous in high-speed corners, especially at the rear,” said Tsunoda when asked what happened in the crash.
“I lose compared to my team-mate, only in high-speed corners. Most of the corners were just fine. I won a few corners. But in two corners in particular, I lost a lot in the high-speed area.
“I tried to improve and hit the wall. Still, I shouldn’t do that. Almost one and a half sessions [are] completely away. I have to learn from it. “
Yuki Tsunoda, AlphaTauri AT02
Photo by: Charles Coates / Motorsport Images
Tsunoda has been involved in a number of similar falls earlier this year as he continues to rev up during his debut season after retiring from qualifying at Imola, Baku and Paul Ricard.
AlphaTauri team boss Franz Tost said the rear of the car was “pretty badly damaged” and the repair “took more time than we originally thought”.
“Of course that’s a big disadvantage for him now, because he’s missing an hour of running,” said Tost.
“Here in Budapest in particular, the track conditions are also changing. The track temperature was very high in the afternoon and it will be the same or similar during the race.
“That’s why everything you can gain experience helps you in the race. And since he didn’t run, that of course reduces his performance. “
Tost felt that Tsunoda was “a little too motivated” at times when he went into the sessions and didn’t gradually increase his pace.
“We mustn’t forget that it was his first time driving a Formula 1 car today,” said Tost.
“If you look at his lap times, he was very, very fast at the beginning in FP1. Now after that he was maybe a little too fast.
“I said to him, it is better to be a little slower in FP1 and do a lot of laps, because every lap helps you to improve your technical understanding and your experience.”
