Alonso qualifies last as Honda's new engine brings fresh driveability headaches at Zandvoort

Fernando Alonso qualified 22nd and last in sprint qualifying at the Dutch Grand Prix on Friday after Honda’s second-specification V6 power unit introduced severe driveability problems at Zandvoort. Team-mate Lance Stroll fared only marginally better, ending the session 19th, with both Aston Martin drivers left to work through the data overnight in search of answers.

Alonso went off at Turn 1 during SQ1, complaining of heavy vibrations and an engine that was over-delivering power under braking. He finished three seconds off the pace. Adding to his difficulties, the car’s SLM low-drag mode — which opens the rear wing — failed to activate, compounding an already difficult session.

“Free practice was more or less okay but in qualifying we had problems on the engine,” Alonso said. “Driveability was pushing on the braking, so it was difficult to stop the car sometimes because the engine was over-delivering. When you brake and the throttle is open, it’s difficult to stop the car.”

Stroll echoed the frustration. “We were struggling with the driveability, and there were a few other things that weren’t quite right, so we need to understand why,” he said. “We’ll go through everything tonight, look at the data, and try to make some improvements for tomorrow.”

The setback looks jarring on the surface given that Aston Martin’s major car upgrade at the Hungarian Grand Prix had moved the Silverstone-based team back into the heart of the midfield. But Honda had already anticipated that introducing the new power unit would effectively reset much of the driveability work carried out earlier in the season.

“We developed our tools to optimise our driveability. We have made good progress, and we were close to what we wanted to achieve,” Honda F1 project leader Shintaro Orihara explained. “But when we introduce the spec 2 engine, the combustion characteristics change, and that work largely has to be re-done for the latest specification.”

The new unit was first run during a filming day following the Hungarian Grand Prix in late July, but Friday at Zandvoort marked its first competitive outing. Honda had earmarked the Dutch Grand Prix as the venue for its sole in-season engine upgrade of the year, meaning the team now faces the task of recalibrating the power unit’s behaviour under race conditions rather than in the more controlled environment of a shakedown.

With the sprint race and full qualifying still to come over the weekend, Aston Martin will be hoping the overnight analysis translates into a measurable improvement before the points are on the line.