Honda very happy with first day: 'the session went smoothley"

"With all the data from the Styrian GP, we were well prepared and the session went smoothly for both Honda teams, working on optimising settings for the weekend, completing the programme we had planned with all four cars," said Tanabe in Friday's review for his employer.

However, the Japanese chief is taking into account the weather forecast. It is possible that the weather will change sometime in the next 48 hours. "There is a possibility that qualifying tomorrow and the race on Sunday will be affected by rain. We will take that into consideration when planning our approach to the rest of the weekend."

Honda have not yet shown the back of their tongues during Friday's practice, something Mercedes have done more of. That is reportedly the main reason why Lewis Hamilton and Valtteri Bottas were able to set first and second fastest times in FP2.