Vandoorne: 'Smooth race weekend necessary for real progress'

One could perhaps say with a bit of sarcasm that McLaren-Honda's second day of in-season testing at Bahrain did not go according to plan: indeed, the team's MCL32 ran all day without a glitch!

The trouble-free session was a departure for both team and driver from their usual 'go-fail-stop' routine, and  Stoffel Vandoorne's  56 laps were more than the Belgian managed in the first three races of 2017.

The McLaren driver was obviously delighted that Honda's reliability woes were nowhere to be seen on Wednesday.

"Today has probably been our best day this season so far," he said.

"It’s the first time that we’ve had a day without any big problems, where we could actually get on with our programme.

"I think we completed everything we wanted to do today, and we went through a lot of set-up stuff that we didn’t manage to do in Barcelona.

"It’s been a very productive day and I’m very happy that we’ve been able to do so many laps."

• Trouble-free day still leaves McLaren-Honda exposed

Vandoorne tempered his enthusiasm a bit however, underlining  the fact that "one swallow does not a summer" make, and that consistent reliability may still be a long way off.

"“Today was really good, but we need every day to be this good, and there are no guarantees that it will be like this next time," he continued.

"We need to learn very carefully from what we’ve done today, and hopefully carry that forward to the next event and see some improvements.

"The key is to be able to have a weekend where everything runs smoothly, which we haven’t been able to do yet. If we can do that, hopefully we can show we are making progress."

GALLERY: All the action from the Day 2 in-season testing at Bahrain

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