Honda, the carmaker that prides itself first and foremost on its engines, can finally hold its head high after years of wandering in the Formula One wilderness without a win of its own.
Its quest for victory came to an end June 30. That's when Max Verstappen won the Austrian Grand Prix for the Aston Martin Red Bull Racing team in a car using Honda's RA619H engine.
It was Honda's 73rd win overall but only its first since 2006.
Honda returned to F1 racing in 2015 after selling its team in 2009 because of the global financial crisis.
But taking the checkered flag wasn't easy.
It originally teamed with McLaren, hoping to rekindle the magic that made the duo a force of nature in the late 1980s and early '90s with legends Alain Prost and Ayrton Senna behind the wheel.
But the new matchup made more headlines for its problems than its podium stands. Embarrassingly, Honda was plagued with engine power and reliability issues. McLaren eventually bailed, and Honda instead turned to supplying engines to Red Bull and Toro Rosso.
The long-awaited win evoked an almost audible sigh of relief from Honda CEO Takahiro Hachigo.
"We went through some tough times over the past five years," Hachigo said. "I am speechless when I think about the enormous effort from all the Honda staff involved in this project, who always believed in themselves and never gave up and finally reached today's victory."
