Problems of Verstappen solved? ''Make sure that this error does not occur again''

The Russian Grand Prix is not a favourite of Red Bull Racing or Honda. The long straights and the fast corners are more in favour of Mercedes, so Honda has to work to get Max Verstappen into the best position.

The last two races didn't go well for Verstappen. The Dutchman dropped out during both races in Italy due to an engine problem. At Monza he had to get into the pits and then get out, in Mugello he didn't see the pits because a problem with his bike would push him into a crash. Otherwise the Dutchman would probably have dropped out as well.

In addition to the engine problems of the past few weeks, the fact that Red Bull and Honda do not end up in a place with happy memories in Sochi now also plays a role. ''Using the time since Mugello, our priority has been to carefully analyse the reason for Max’s retirement in that race. Our investigation revealed that several factors caused the problem and we have been able to apply countermeasures to deal with each of these, with the aim of ensuring the fault does not happen again'', Toyoharu Tanabe said in the preview of Honda.

Honda's Technical Director is looking forward to the challenge in Sochi. ''The Sochi track presents a very different challenge to the last three high speed circuits, Spa, Monza and Mugello. It has some street circuit characteristics, such as several 90 degree turns, but it also has two quite long straights. As usual we will spend free practice optimising PU performance for qualifying and the race and look forward to a trouble-free weekend with all four cars'', concludes the Japanese.