Press release
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october 26, 2020 - Honda Racing
Pair of Top-Five Finishes For Honda in F1 Portugal GP
- Max Verstappen earns ninth podium finish of 2020
- Pierre Gasly scores second top-five result of season
- 11th consecutive podium for Honda
Max Verstappen overcame a slippery start and slight contact on the opening lap of Sunday's Portugal Grand Prix to earn his ninth Formula 1 podium finish of the year, finishing third at the #autodromointernacionaldoalgarve.
Verstappen started in the top three and was fighting for second before brief contact with Sergio Perez dropped him to fifth. Undaunted, the Aston Martin Red Bull driver needed less than 10 laps to get his Honda-powered solidly back into the third spot, sealing the deal with a Lap 9 pass of Carlos Sainz that allowed him to resume his pursuit of the leaders.
Meanwhile behind Verstappen, AlphaTauri's #pierregasly was having no trouble in making his soft Pirelli tires work after launching from the ninth spot on the grid. After tiptoeing through the slick opening laps, Gasly had vaulted to sixth by Lap 14 and briefly held the fourth spot before pitting for new tires on Lap 30.
The Frenchman's change to medium tires stalled his charge briefly, but allowed him to push harder over the day's final laps. This served him well as he moved into sixth on Lap 55 when Esteban Ocon pitted, and then again as he chased down Sainz over the last laps, making a pass for fifth going into Turn 1 to secure his best finish since his September win at Monza.
For the second consecutive race, the race was far less kind to Red Bull's #alexalbon and AlphaTauri's #daniilkvyat. Albon, who had started sixth, dropped six spots on the tricky opening laps, and then employed a two-stop strategy that doomed him to a 12th-place finish. Kvyat started 13th and was unable to climb into the fight, eventually getting hit with a five-second penalty for exceeding the track limits and settling for a 19th-place result.
The podium result by Verstappen was his ninth of the year, and marked the 11th consecutive race with a Honda driver on the podium. Gasly's fifth-place finish, combined with his sixth-place run in the previous race, has thrown him into the battle of the top five in the driver's championship. Gasly is ninth in the standings with five races to run, but is just one point behind eighth-placed Albon, two points behind Lando Norris in seventh and just 12 markers out of fifth.
The teams and drivers of the Formula 1 World Championship will now return to Italy for the third time in 2020, visiting the famed Imola layout next week. The track, which first hosted an #f1 race in 1980, has not appeared on the series calendar since 2006. Honda has four wins on the circuit, three of those courtesy of the legendary Ayrton Senna.
Toyoharu Tanabe
Technical Director, Honda F1
“In today's Portuguese GP, Max secured his third consecutive podium finish for Aston Martin Red Bull #racing, while for us at Honda it was our eleventh podium in a row. In the AlphaTauri, Pierre was quick all weekend, including today, when he produced some spectacular overtakes to score valuable points for the team. Today, tire management was definitely the key and that's what Max and Pierre built their race on. Now we head to Imola, for this season's third race in Italy, a short distance from the AlphaTauri factory, so it will be an important weekend for us. This will be another circuit that we have never visited in the hybrid era, making for an interesting challenge for everyone, especially as #f1 trials a 2-day format, with only 90 minutes of free practice to prepare for qualifying and the race.”
Max Verstappen
Aston Martin Red Bull #racing Honda
Start 3rd, Finish: 3rd
“Overall I'm happy with third and I think it's where we expected to be. I tried everything I could and the beginning was of course not so easy with a little bit of rain and low grip, which meant the tire temperatures were very low for the first few laps. I had a little touch with Sergio (Perez) but luckily I had no damage. I don't know how but the McLarens had a lot of grip on the opening lap so once the rain had passed I overtook them to get back into P3 and then focused on my own race. The soft tire wasn't working so well today but once we pitted and went onto the medium tires we had good pace and it was quite ok. Of course by then already the gap to Mercedes was so big so we couldn't really do anything but we can still be happy with another podium. I am not sure what the time of the pit stop was but it felt very fast today, so I think the mechanics all deserve a beer tonight for being the best in the paddock.”
Alex Albon
Aston Martin Red Bull #racing Honda
Start: 6th, Finish: 12th
“It was a tough race and we struggled for grip right from the beginning. I think the car was fast but we couldn't show our true pace whilst we were stuck in traffic. I didn't get off the line very well and for the first three laps we struggled with tire temperatures, so we kept locking up the fronts. Once the tires were hot, the car was good but recently we've been struggling to switch the tires on and that just sent us backwards into traffic. We tried to react by doing a two stop strategy but looking back maybe that wasn't the best thing to do. We will look at what we can learn from today's race and make sure we put in a good performance in Imola.”
Pierre Gasly
Scuderia AlphaTauri Honda
Start: 9th, Finish: 5th
“I really enjoyed this race! I felt very good with the soft tires, I was able to manage them well at the start of the race and when the others started to struggle, I could push to pass the Renaults, McLarens and a #racing Point in the end. For us, as a midfield team, it almost tastes like a small victory to finish P5 behind the top three teams, so I'm really pleased with this result. Especially after all the work the guys in the garage did on Friday night to rebuild a completely new car for me, they put in a lot of effort and I'm happy to give them this fifth place today.”
Daniil Kvyat
Scuderia AlphaTauri Honda
Start: 13th, Finish: 19th
“It was a bad race, there wasn't much to do after the first lap as I was already in a bad position. It was quite difficult, something felt wrong with the tires, like they weren't heated enough, and I just struggled for grip for the first few laps. The wind didn't make the situation any easier but it's normal, these conditions are always very tricky. Sometimes you have good races and sometimes you have bad ones, and today was a bad one for me. We have to analyze it and see what happened on those first few laps and come back stronger next week.”
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