Honda disappointed with Tsunoda's crash: 'That was in Verstappen's way'.

F1 News

5 June 2021 at 16:52
  • GPblog.com

After the free practice sessions, a pole position for Max Verstappen seemed certainly possible in Baku, but it never materialised. At Honda, they are quite disappointed with the session, despite all the cars with their engine finishing in the top ten.

Despite the Red Bull Racing and AlphaTauri teams achieving good results almost every race weekend, this is the first time this season that all of Honda's cars have qualified within the top ten: "It's positive that we now got all the cars into Q3, especially as it was a tricky qualifying session with red flags in every session. But the result could definitely have been better," Toyoharu Tanabe explained on Honda's Twitter account.

Tsunoda gets in the way of colleagues

The engine manufacturer's top man is referring to the final red flag, which brought qualifying to an early end. "It was frustrating that Tsunoda's crash caused the red flag, which prevented Verstappen, Sergio Perez and Pierre Gasly from improving their time on the final lap."

At the end of qualifying, the Red Bull and AlphaTauri teams were, however, handed a boost. Lando Norris was given a three-place grid penalty, meaning Tsunoda and Perez both moved up a place on the grid.