'Verstappen, Gasly to take Honda upgrade in France'

Red Bull will take a second Honda engine upgrade of 2019 at the French Grand Prix, according to De Telegraaf. Max Verstappen and Pierre Gasly were furnished with a power unit upgrade in the Azerbaijan Grand Prix already this season.

Fitting a third engine in the eighth race of 2019 means that the Red Bull pair can almost certainly expect to serve grid penalties before the season is through.

However, that fits an aggressive plan set out by Helmut Marko and Christian Horner, who both suggested in pre-season that the team would expect to take penalties.

The Baku upgrade was introduced in an attempt to bolster reliability and it remains to be seen if the new engine in Paul Ricard will bring additional horsepower.

The power hungry Circuit Gilles Villeneuve did not play to Red Bull's strengths at the Canadian Grand Prix last weekend as Verstappen finished fifth, having started ninth, while Gasly dropped to eighth at the chequered flag from fifth on the grid, finishing behind both Renault cars.

Gasly later revealed that he had run at lower power than usual as Red Bull opted to turn his engine down in order to prevent overheating.

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