Tsunoda was forced to retire from the Saturday race in Azerbaijan after a strange opening two laps to the sprint.
The Japanese brushed the wall on the opening lap after clashing with team-mate Nyck de Vries and, as he returned to the pits, his right rear tyre flew off the rim – briefly rolling down the track.
Having made it back to the pits for a change of tyres, Tsunoda then faced fresh drama when he returned to the race, as he found his right rear wheel and suspension were out of kilter.
His car crabbed its way slowly around the lap before he came in to the pits to retire.
AlphaTauri was fined by the FIA for an unsafe release after the governing body felt that the team could have done more to check the car was safe before releasing it.
However, AlphaTauri’s own investigations this week have concluded that the suspension was intact when the car left the pits, and that a rear track rod failed only as load was put through it on the right hander of the pit exit.
Speaking to Autosport ahead of the Miami Grand Prix, AlphaTauri’s head of vehicle performance Guillaume Dezoteux explained that the analysis afterwards painted a slightly different picture to what it felt had happened on the day.
“We did a lot of investigation on the sprint race,” he said. “And actually, when Yuki stopped, the car wasn't damaged and was safe to release.
Source: Autosport