Toro Rosso’s Brendon Hartley will drop to last place on the Austrian Grand Prix grid after Honda elected to take on a fresh power unit.
Hartley finished only 19th during Saturday’s qualifying session at the Red Bull Ring, having also struggled for pace throughout the preceding practice sessions.
Honda has opted to change all six components that make up the power unit in order to add to Hartley’s allocation for the upcoming events.
Honda confirmed that the change is for “tactical reasons, given that he qualified on the back row” and emphasised there “were no technical issues with the power unit”.
Hartley will therefore drop behind Sauber’s Marcus Ericsson on the back row of the grid.
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