Photo: Honda
After all four Honda-powered cars finished in the top 10 at the 2019 Monaco GP, the feat was almost repeated at the most recent race in Canada.
While all eyes were on the dramatic battle between Sebastian Vettel and Lewis Hamilton, Honda raced to yet again another strong result, reinforcing the belief that Red Bull made the right decision to change engine suppliers.
Driving for Toro Rosso, Daniil Kvyat qualified and finished in the same position after an up-and-down race. He had a drawn-out duel with McLaren’s Carlos Sainz Jr in the final part of the race and managed to get ahead with a bold move on the inside of turn 1, securing a single championship point. His teammate Alexander Albon was sandwiched at the start and lost a front wing, forcing him to pit on the first lap and eventually leading to his first retirement of the season.
Some ways ahead, Pierre Gasly had a disappointing race but nonetheless finished eighth to score four points, while Max Verstappen had yet another strong result, finishing fifth despite having started a season-low ninth after Kevin Magnussen’s accident in qualifying prevented him from advancing to Q3.
Verstappen maintained his fourth place in the championship, while the Honda-powered Red Bull Racing team is a firm third and the Honda-powered Toro Rosso is seventh, though only a handful of points outside the top five.
As a power-dependent race, the 2019 Canadian GP was expected to show the progress of Honda’s F1 engine, which in the past struggled at this circuit. However, none of the Honda-powered drivers seemed to have any real difficulty keeping up or getting past other cars on the straight, and none experienced any reliability issues, so it’s looking good so far for the Japanese manufacturer.
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