Lewis Hamilton and Sebastian Vettel both raised an eyebrow at the performance of Honda during Brazilian Grand Prix qualifying.
Max Verstappen flew to pole for Red Bull as the usual power advantage Mercedes and Ferrari enjoy was nowhere to be found on the straights of Interlagos.
After claiming second on the grid alongside the Dutchman, Vettel was satisfied at first, admitting he had likely achieved the optimum.
“I was having a very good attempt in Q3, went a little bit wide at the final turn, but I don’t think I was the only one,” he commented.
“I think Max’s time was a bit far away so I think we have to admit we got beaten fair and square. It was good to get on the front row.”
However, after several weeks of the Ferrari engine being under scrutiny, the four-time world champion turned the tables on Red Bull and Honda.
“Obviously there is no progress from one race to another because it’s the same engine I suppose,” Vettel suggested.
“I don’t think they have introduced a new spec, so it was a bit of a surprise.
“Usually we’ve seen a lot of qualifying sessions and we were a bit faster than everyone in the straight, losing a bit in the corners, but today we were as quick or Max and Alex were as fast down the straights as us.
“That’s about it, I don’t know why. I know we didn’t do anything different.”
Hamilton too was a little sceptical though welcomed the competition.
“It’s obviously great for the sport that we have another manufacturer that’s starting to produce good engines and helping their team get up there,” Hamilton said of Honda.
“I don’t fully understand it because we’ve only had the few engines that we have, so I don’t know if you can bring upgrades to the engines once you have a new one.”
The world champion also wasn’t too disheartened by his final grid position.
“I think P3 was really strong for us,” he added. “Once we got to qualifying, these guys had great pace and we were losing out to Max on the straights by quite a chunk, which was the majority of where the time was coming from.
“I just kept chipping away at it and the last lap was really as good as it could for us. Otherwise, I’m happy to be able to split the Ferraris, it always puts a smile on my face.”
