“I sh** my pants!” - Tsunoda recalls Sao Paulo Grand Prix moment

Tsunoda picked up two more points for AlphaTauri, who continued to close in on Williams for seventh in the constructors’ championship.

However, it wasn’t an entirely smooth race for the Japanese driver.

Tsunoda went off at Turn 10 during the first stint of the race, losing crucial ground.

“Yeah that was a big mistake,” Tsunoda said. “So yeah it was a bit scary I actually, I shit my pants. Luckily I didn’t expect a DNF.”

Tsunoda felt without the off - and some technical gremlins late on - he could have beaten Lewis Hamilton to eighth.

“Yeah it was good,” Tsunoda reflected. “Unfortunate for Daniel at the end, his pace was really good. I think also he changed a bit of setup and I think we got good data, he was quite fast.

“So yeah, I think it was really good overall from the team. I struggled in the end with a reliability issue, but luckily we were able to bring the car home.

“I don’t know about Pierre, but Lewis quite [a] high chance.”