F1 star left with egg on his face after falsely reporting rival at Brazilian GP

Yuki Tsunoda tried to report a Formula 1 rival for breaking the rules at the Sao Paulo Grand Prix. However, the Japanese's claim did not amount to much as it turned out he had completely misinterpreted the colour of a flag that was being waved by a trackside marshal at the time of the incident.

It happened after the Sprint race on Saturday, as the cars that had just taken the chequered flag were heading to parc ferme. Just as he arrived at turn four on the Interlagos track, Tsunoda was passed on the inside of the track by Nico Hulkenberg in the Sauber.

Cars are allowed to overtake on an in-lap under normal conditions. However, Red Bull racer Tsunoda saw a flag being waved by a marshal and thought that meant they were under yellow flag conditions, which would prohibit overtaking for safety reasons.

And so he jumped on the radio to report: "Hulkenberg just overtook in the yellow flag zone!" That was not the case, though, as the flag being waved by the marshal was actually a yellow-and-red flag which is code for a slippery track or debris on the circuit, which had been reported to race control.

Tsunoda was aware of the dangers on track, as he had been told by his race engineer after ending the Sprint race: "We do have potential debris, turn four, as well, so just watch out for debris at turn four here." But clearly he also thought there were yellow flags in force as well as the debris warning.

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No incident was noted by race control, as Hulkenberg had done nothing wrong by overtaking the Red Bull. The Sauber driver had also moved past Carlos Sainz and Isack Hadjar on that in-lap, the German apparently keen to get to parc ferme and get out of the car, having lost five places during the Sprint to finish 15th after qualifying 10th.

Things did not go any better later on Saturday for Tsunoda who 19th and last of all the drivers who took part in qualifying. "Some of the things we changed for the Sprint race gave us a good idea how to make the car better, we thought," he said after his Q1 exit.

"From our side of the garage, we were able to make some good amount of steps in terms of the parts we changed after the Sprint race, and I feel clearly better in the car. But, an issue came out, which seems like it's quite big. It's a shame that we were not able to maximise that opportunity."