Alonso, Vandoorne get Mexican GP penalties for F1 engines changes

Honda had planned to make changes on both cars for Mexico, where it expects to struggle, in favour of having fresher elements for the final two races of the season in Brazil and Abu Dhabi.

Alonso will take his ninth internal combustion engine, 11th turbocharger and 10th MGU-H of the season for the race at Mexico City.

It means the double world champion will run spec 3.8 for the first time, after Vandoorne gave it a run-out last time in Austin.

Vandoorne will take his 10th internal combustion engine, 12th turbocharger, 12th MGU-H, eighth MGU-K, seventh energy store and seventh control electronics.

Speaking on Thursday, Vandoorne said: "We're taking some engine penalties this weekend, because we know it's a tricky weekend for us.

"Hopefully it should be the last. We knew that this was going to be a difficult weekend for us in terms of performance.

"We were always planning to take an engine penalty here to kind of protect the last two weekends, where hopefully we should have more opportunities."

After an investigation, Honda found that the MGU-H failure Alonso and Vandoorne suffered in Austin was similar and has made changes to the way it operates the part in a bid to prevent the failure happening again.

Meanwhile, Pierre Gasly will take a five-place grid penalty for Sunday's race after the team fitted his car's fifth control electronics.

Toro Rosso also changed the energy store, but that is only his fourth of the season and therefore avoids a further penalty.