Honda: "Max was on an exceptional lap"

Toyoharu Tanabe saw that a pole position was possible for Max Verstappen. A crash prevented this and the Honda chief calls this a 'pity'. Nevertheless, the engine supplier will not throw in the towel, because according to Tanabe

"Max was on an exceptional lap on his second Q3 run, which looked set to assure him of pole position until a small mistake put his car in the wall," Tanabe said in the Honda review. "It was a real shame, but third is still a good starting position. He has shown great speed all weekend so we can expect a strong race from him tomorrow."

Not Perez's best lap

For the next Honda-powered car, we have to go to the third row of the grid. There, Sergio Perez will try to drive to a podium finish when the lights go out at the Jeddah circuit. "Checo has also gone well this weekend, although he didn’t quite get his best lap on his final run, so will start from fifth."

Then on AlphaTauri: "Both drivers have also been consistently quick so far and Pierre did very well to secure sixth place. Eighth for Yuki is very good, but actually it’s a bit disappointing as, without traffic on his final run, he might have been able to start a bit higher up the grid," said the Japanese. "So overall, it was not quite the grid we expected for our cars, but their pace suggests they can all race hard tomorrow."

All scenarios are on the table

Honda is currently preparing full steam ahead for the race. "Tomorrow will be the first ever Grand Prix here and we have seen all weekend what a difficult challenge this track can present. Therefore we will be simulating every possible scenario to be ready for whatever opportunity presents itself over the 50 laps," Tanabe concludes.