Copyright Sports Illustrated
Haas Formula 1 driver Oliver Bearman has delivered a scathing assessment of Yuki Tsunoda's defensive driving after a near-miss at the United States Grand Prix. The Briton was battling Tsunoda's Red Bull for seventh at the Circuit of the Americas when he made a move at Turn 15. But the Japanese driver, in Bearman's eyes, jinked to the left under braking and led to evasive action being taken. The Haas skipped across the inside of the corner and spun across the front of Tsunoda, somehow avoiding contact. Tsunoda "unfair" Bearman would recover and although he lost a position to Sauber's Nico Hulkenberg in the process, he was able to take two points for ninth. Yet unhappy with Tsunoda, he told Sky Sports UK post-race: "For me, what he did was unfair. I felt what he did was against the rules and against the spirit of the regulations and what we race to. "It was two laps that I was trying to fight with him, clearly I had more pace at that stage. Every time I was looking at the move, on the inside at Turn 12, the inside at Turn 13, and the inside at Turn 15, he was moving in reaction. And moving in reaction is something that we can't do at these speeds with these cars. It's dangerous. "When I went for the move on the inside on that occasion, he saw me do that and reacted to my move. And by the time I'm committed to braking, I can't disappear. Honestly, we're very lucky to have avoided a big, big crash. Just very disappointed that it resulted in P9 for us today." Tsunoda's place in F1 is under pressure given his struggles in the Red Bull since stepping up to become Max Verstappen's teammate at the Japanese Grand Prix. Despite issues in both sprint qualifying and qualifying proper, he was able to rise through the field to secure two points finishes, albeit with the shine taken off by Bearman's attack. Firing back at the British rookie, however, Tsunoda told Sky Sports UK: "I don't think I moved under the braking. It's a bit unfortunate how he ended up, especially as we were having a good fight until then. That's it." 2009 world champion Jenson Button was a pundit for Sky across the weekend at COTA and giving his thoughts on the incident, he sided with the Haas driver. "I don't really know where Yuki was going on that one," he conceded. "It looked like he was going to be driving over the grass on the inside because he was looking in the mirrors waiting to see if Ollie was going to try to go down the inside. "He turns left and he would have been on the grass if he didn't turn back out again. He's 100 per cent reacting to what Ollie's doing behind him in a braking zone."
