Honda still waiting for 600th win.

The late Soichiro Honda would have been frustrated by the wait: The company he founded and took racing are on the verge of yet another historic milestone, but that final brick in the wall is proving difficult to cement into place...

Honda have arrived at the last two grands prix ready to celebrate their 600th grand prix victory - but each time the champagne has remained on ice.

When Hiroshi Aoyama gave them their 597th victory in the 250cc race at their home track of Motegi in the Japanese Grand Prix (middle pic), expectations were high for a the record breaking 600th win either in Malaysia or Qatar.

Swiss rider Thomas Luthi pushed those expectations even higher when he opened the proceedings with victory in the 125cc race in Malaysia (lower pic), but since then Honda wins have dried up.

Honda riders failed to win in any of the three classes at the following Qatar Grand Prix and the factory therefore heads to Australia this weekend still requiring two more victories to become the first manufacturer to reach a grand total of 600.

But when it is finally reached, surely either on Sunday at Phillip Island or one week later at Istanbul, it will be a truly staggering milestone for a company that only started racing on the international stage in 1959, in the 125cc race at the TT races in the Isle of Man.

Less than two years after that debut, Australian Tom Phillis brought Honda their very first grand prix victory in the 1961 125cc race at the twisty and tight Montjuich Park circuit on the outskirts of Barcelona.

That victory effectively opened the floodgates for the Japanese factory and Honda would go on to win a total of 8 GPs in the 11 round 1961 season. Phillis claimed four of those wins and would be crowned Riders' World Champion, while Honda won the Manufacturers' Championship - the ball hasn't stopped rolling since.

Fast forward 40-years and Valentino Rossi would take Honda's 500th GP victory by winning in front of the HRC bosses at the season-opening 2001 Japanese Grand Prix (top picture).

Rossi and Honda would go on to dominate the premier-class before his 2004 move to Yamaha - but the likes of emerging stars Luthi, Aoyama and Dani Pedrosa would doubtless be delighted to succeed Rossi on Honda's role of honour.

However, in a year that has seen just two premier-class wins for Honda machines, should the landmark victory instead fall to one of the seven RCV riders it would surely be even more valuable to HRC - after a season in which they have had very little to celebrate.