Honda Motorsport Weekend Round-Up: June 10-11

F1 engine disappoints again, Indy teams crash out, touring cars succeed.

Honda races all over the globe every weekend, so we here at Honda-tech thought we ought to keep up on how Honda teams fare. From Formula 1 to touring cars and motorcycles, we’ll give you the skinny on who’s up and down in the world of Honda motorsport. Let’s take a look at the action from June 10 and 11, 2017.

Formula 1, Canadian Grand Prix hardships abound.

Despite a promising P7 in Free Practice 1 to start to the weekend, McLaren-Honda suffered through another difficult Formula 1 weekend. While running in the points in 10th place, Fernando Alonso uttered that oh-so-common refrain, “Engine. Engine blew up.” His teammate, Stoffel Vandoorne, finished the race 14th, one lap behind race winner Lewis Hamilton.

MotoGP, Circuit de Catalunya sees Honda fighting for the top spot.

With most of the best riders hailing from Spain, the home crowd seemed certain of a Spanish winner. Dani Pedrosa put his Repsol Honda on pole and made a fantastic start, but his teammate Marc Marquez ran him down. The Honda teammates ran 1-2 and traded the lead during the race’s opening half. However, Andrea Dovizioso pestered the Hondas to steal the win, his second in a row, for Ducati. Marquez and Pedrosa rounded out the podium.

Verizon IndyCar Series, Texas Motor Speedway sees big crashes.

IndyCar’s annual visit to TMS’s 1.5-mile oval turned into a crazy race of attrition. A huge crash with about 100 laps remaining knocked out an astonishing eight of the remaining 19 cars. That included all four Schmidt Peterson Racing and Dale Coyne Racing cars. Tristan Vautier stole the show early on with a stunning drive in his first IndyCar appearance since 2015. However, his Coyne Racing car collected a spinner in the big wreck, ending his chances early.

With only five laps remaining, Takuma Sato and Scott Dixon tangled from third and second places, respectively. Dixon had run a measured race with a shot at overtaking race winner Will Power in the Penske Chevrolet. However, championship leader Dixon settled for 9th place points after the crash. Tony Kanaan came back from a penalty to finish second place in the best Honda.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RsSwvApknSs

British Touring Car Championship, Croft showing more crashes and bashes.

Honda suffered though an uncharacteristically down showing at Croft Circuit in the BTCC’s sixth round. Gordon Shedden came up short of podiums in the weekend’s first two races with fifth- and fourth-place finishes, but he still left the weekend leading the drivers’ standings by 11 points.

The big news came before the first race even began with a huge shunt in qualifying. That multiple car crash sent three drivers–Luke Davenport, Aron Taylor-Smith, and Honda racer Jeff Smith–to hospital each with concussions, multiple broken bones, and more injuries.

TCR International Series, Salzburgring recovery from even more crashing.

Honda driver Attila Tassi recovered from a huge crash during pre-race testing to win Race 2 of the weekend. His win completed a 1-2 finish for Honda with his M1RA teammate Robert Colciago hanging onto second place from the Race 2 pole. Tassi charged from 6th on the grid for his win through a strong front of the field. You can watch Race 2 here.

TCR Germany, Red Bull Ring, praise be, no crashing!

British racer Josh Files (#1, above) continued his domination of the ADAC TCR Germany series. He swept the two-race weekend at Red Bull Ring in Austria. That gives him a solid championship lead after winning three of the series’ opening four races. Moritz Oestreich added a runner-up finish for Honda with a second place in Race 2.