Max Verstappen and Red Bull looking to be “strong at Suzuka” with Russia penalty

The new Spec 4 engines from Honda have been fitted across the Red Bull and Toro Rosso cars, giving Verstappen, Alex Albon and Pierre Gasly five-place grid penalties while Daniil Kvyat will most likely start from the back as other elements on his power unit have been changed.

“We thought ‘Why not do it here?'” Verstappen said at Sochi of the new engines.

Another factor for the decision to take the new engines and penalties was to avoid unnecessarily dropping places at Honda’s home race in Japan.

“It’s a very important race for Honda,” he added.