In preparation for the Austrian Grand Prix, Yuki Tsunoda and Max Verstappen went head to head competing in an off road Mega Truck race.
The race is part of Alpha Tauri’s (Un)Serious Race Series, and saw Tsunoda beat Verstappen. Having previously beat Daniel Ricciardo during a mini jet boat race in Miami, this victory furthered his lead in the series.
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The RedBull and Alpha Tauri duo raced mega trucks spanning three meters tall and five meters wide. In a venue which hosts the annual Red Bull Erzbergrodeo, the track imitated that of the Red Bull Ring instead of its usual Erzberg mine.
Verstappen’s new experience
Verstappen unsurprisingly came out of top during qualifying after he went purple in the final sector. The track was split into three sections : “The Car Yard” , “The Swimming Pool” and “The Big Drift”.This purple sector gave Max a three second advantage over Yuki in qualifying.
After his qualifying lap Max confessed to being new to the world of off road racing “I’ve never really done anything properly off-road. I have driven my dad’s rally car, but that was more on tarmac”. He further highlighted how much he was enjoying the event ““Honestly, the approach of my qualifying lap was to survive! It was a lot of fun”.
Yuki however started the race with a bang, overtaking the two time world champion into turn one who dealt with much adversity and trailed home in second place.
Crediting his race strategy and mischievous ideas, Yuki said: “I had a good start and used my momentum to the end. Unfortunately, he had a bit of misfiring…well actually I put a bit of water into his engine, but don’t tell anyone! That strategy worked, and I wanted to defend my first place from the first Unserious Race Series with Daniel.”
Looking ahead to Austria
Humble in defeat, Max Verstappen reflected on his time racing Mega Trucks “The great thing is that we always do these kinds of crazy things that no other team does. So, for me to have already been part of the team for such a long time, we’ve done so many different and weird and crazy things. This is another one on the list.”
All focus now turns to their upcoming race at the Red Bull ring. Both drivers reflected on previous experience in Austria with Verstappen stating “I have a lot of good memories about the race in Austria. We have been winning quite a few times, which is the most important at our home track. What is beautiful is that there are so many grandstands, and you can almost see the whole track. The whole atmosphere because of that is great.”
The Austrian Grand Prix takes place on July 2nd 2023.
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