Honda: "Verstappen had trouble with the balance today"

Qualifying for Red Bull Racing and AlphaTauri did not go as planned today. According to Toyoharu Tanabe of Honda this was partly because Max Verstappen had problems with the balance of the RB16.

The Hungaroring is normally a strong circuit for Red Bull Racing, where the team achieves pretty good results every year. Last year Max Verstappen managed to get his first pole position on the track in Hungary. Despite the supremacy of Mercedes the expectations were high.

During qualifying the team was only completely in the water. Alexander Albon didn't manage to reach Q3 and Max Verstappen clearly had trouble on the track. "Today was a very tough qualifying for us. Max struggled with the balance and although we saw some improvement compared to yesterday on the data, he will start from seventh on the grid.", Tanabe says via the Twitter channel of Honda Racing F1.

Even with the other team with Honda engines, not everything went according to plan. Already in Q1 Pierre Gasly let himself be heard on the radio about the power source. According to the Frenchman it felt as if he broke the engine. That feeling seems to be right.

"Pierre also got to Q3, but we saw something in the data on which we decided not to let him run in the last session. To avoid further risk, we will change the power unit overnight, penalty free," the top man of the Japanese engine manufacturer concluded.