HONDA The Power of Dreams

Sprint|18th

Qualifying|18th|1 min 13.650s

Sprint|17th

Qualifying|19th|1 min 13.818s

Round 12 of the 2026 season, the Dutch Grand Prix, got underway following the summer break, with Honda introducing the updated RA626H. The Spec 2 power unit features an improved combustion system for increased power, along with updates to the battery and other components, aimed at improving competitiveness in the second half of the season. In Friday’s opening free practice session, Fernando Alonso of Aston Martin Aramco Formula One™ Team (AMAF1) showed encouraging pace to finish 12th.

The Dutch GP Sprint began at noon local time on Saturday, August 22.

In Sprint Qualifying the previous day, neither AMAF1 driver was able to put together a clean flying lap, with Lance Stroll qualifying 19th and Alonso 22nd.

For the 24-lap Sprint, Alonso made changes to his suspension setup and opted to start from the pit lane. With other cars also starting from the pit lane, Stroll lined up 18th on the grid. Both AMAF1 cars started the Sprint on medium tires.

Stroll made a clean start and maintained 18th, while Alonso completed the opening lap in 21st after another car was withdrawn from the dummy grid and returned to the pits. On Lap 2, Alonso overtook another pit-lane starter to gain one position. Showing good pace, Alonso worked his way up to 18th during the first half of the race and closed in on Stroll.

Stroll had moved up to 17th after a car ahead dropped back early in the race. Although he closed in on the car ahead, overtaking proved difficult at a circuit where passing opportunities are limited. With both AMAF1 cars held up behind a slower car, they remained close together through to the checkered flag, with Stroll finishing 17th and Alonso 18th.

Qualifying began at 4:00 p.m. local time on August 22 under cloudy skies, with an ambient temperature of 18°C and a track temperature of 33°C.

During the 18-minute Q1 session, Alonso and Stroll each used three sets of new tires for three attacks. Alonso recorded 1 min 14.635s on his first set before improving to 1 min 13.650s on his second. He narrowly missed improving on his third and final attack.

Stroll improved on each of his three runs, setting his best time of 1 min 13.818s on his final attempt. Alonso finished Q1 in 18th and Stroll 19th, with both narrowly missing out on advancing to Q2.

“Things seemed to go okay for us in Free Practice, but then we experienced some drivability issues in Sprint Qualifying, and it was difficult to stop the car sometimes.

“The rear wing didn't open for us either, so we lost lap time with that. It's very early days with Honda's upgrade package, so we'll try to understand more in the Sprint.”

“We were very close to getting into Q2 and more or less maximized what we had. We have work to do to improve the drivability of the car and to recover more lap time moving forward.

“All in all, I think we have to be happy to be 1.3 seconds from the leader in Q1, when just a few races ago we were on average four seconds adrift of the top teams.

“Let's see what we can do tomorrow and enjoy our last race here in Zandvoort.”

“I think there was more there today. We were struggling with the drivability, and there were a few other things that weren't quite right, so we need to understand why. It's really windy out there, but it's the same for everyone.

“We'll go through everything tonight, look at the data, and try to make some improvements for tomorrow.”

“We've struggled with similar issues today as we did yesterday. There are improvements we need to make with the drivability and balance of the car, and that's where our focus needs to be.

“Our race pace seems to be better than our Qualifying pace. In Qualifying, we need to be able to push more to really attack the lap.

“But we're making progress, we're working hard, and we'll keep pushing to make another step forward.”

“Despite the limited practice running of a Sprint event, the weekend so far has given us valuable track time to better understand the characteristics of our recent upgrades and the updated power unit.

“Both drivers are reporting significant steps forward with the chassis and aero performance.

“The key takeaway is that we need to improve the drivability, and doing so will help us find more performance.

“Our pace is much improved compared to a couple of races ago – but we know there's more potential to unlock from this package.”

“Today we introduced our spec 2 engine and we have seen an improvement between the old iteration and the update.

“In both sessions we were able to complete full distance running without any reliability issues and we’ve confirmed how the power unit integrates with the AMAF1 Team chassis.

“In Sprint qualifying, we found some areas to improve in, particularly with data settings for drivability. HRC Sakura will analyze the data overnight and perform dyno tests to optimize these parameters for the rest of the weekend.”

“Today we ran the Sprint race and qualifying without any reliability issues with the new spec engine. We have received similar feedback from both AMAF1 Team drivers after these sessions. Together, with our engineers’ assessments, and our work on the test bench at HRC Sakura overnight and after the Sprint race, we have seen some improvements to get a better control over the internal combustion engine (ICE) and to further improve the consistency of the combustion behaviour in qualifying. We need to ensure that the engine does what the driver needs at the right time. We have taken some steps today, but there is still more to be done to give the drivers the confidence they need. This is our primary focus for the short and medium term.”