Honda explains qualifying result: 'Clearly our rivals have made some steps'

"In qualifying for the Mexico City Grand Prix, all four Honda cars once again made it through to Q3," he began. "Both Red Bull Racing cars will start from the second row, with Max third and Checo fourth."

Disappointing result for Red Bull, AlphaTauri satisfied

For Red Bull, qualifying went disappointingly, while Mercedes made big improvements. "It was clear that our rivals have made a step forward since FP3 and on top of that Max and Checo couldn't set a clean last lap in Q3 for various reasons, so all in all it was a difficult session for them," continued the Japanese.

At AlphaTauri things went much better. Both drivers made it to Q3 and Pierre Gasly will start from fifth. "Pierre has been showing excellent pace all weekend. Yuki's aim was to beat the other drivers starting at the back of the grid due to penalties and he succeeded by qualifying ninth, which is a brilliant achievement."

"He also has a good pace, so we expect him to be able to overtake others to move up the order. This circuit is relatively short, which means the drivers have 71 tough laps ahead of them and we will do everything we can to get a good result with both teams," Tanabe concluded.