Tsunoda added that such a scenario couldn’t even have been thought about earlier in the season when the Faenza team was struggling for form.
Helped by floor updates to the AT04, he qualified sixth at the Yas Marina track and held onto the position in the early laps, rising up the order as the frontrunners pitted.
When Charles Leclerc came in Tsunoda took over the lead for five laps, before making his first and only stop.
He was only the second Japanese driver to lead a Grand Prix after Takuma Sato enjoyed a brief spell in front at the Nurburgring in 2004.
The subplot was that sixth would have been enough to relieve Williams of P7 in the constructors’ world championship on team principal Franz Tost’s last day in charge.
However, Tsunoda slipped behind the two-stopping Sergio Perez and Fernando Alonso to ultimately claim eighth, which was not quite enough to deny the Grove outfit.
“I gave it everything,” he said when asked by Autosport about just missing out. “To be honest, I didn't know I was leading the pack.
“So I'm quite surprised about it. And looking back, during the first half of the season, we never thought about it, that we'd be leading the pack.
Source: Autosport