Vandoorne rues his ‘undriveable’ MCL33

Stoffel Vandoorne says his MCL33 was “undriveable” during qualifying for the British GP, explaining the almost a full second gap between himself and Fernando Alonso.

While Alonso qualified 13th for Sunday’s grand prix, Vandoorne dropped out of Saturday’s running in the first segment.

His best time in qualifying, a 1:29.096, was almost a full second slower than Alonso’s qualifying time.

“Today was really difficult,” Vandoorne said. “The car was undriveable and we don’t really understand why at the moment.

“I think we were actually in much better shape than we looked [on Friday] but since this morning something has been feeling fundamentally wrong with the car and we’ve not been able to really find what the problem was before qualifying.

“In qualifying as well the feeling was pretty terrible. Very bad. Nothing more we could do, so [it’s] very frustrating.

“I felt very uncomfortable, no pace at all. [It was] impossible to really drive and to do anything. It’s a shame to come out of qualifying like this.”