Vandoorne: points were out of the question in Canada

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Stoffel Vandoorne has said that a points finish in the Canadian Grand Prix had never been possible.

In an exclusive blog for Motorsport.com, the McLaren driver explained how a series of problems for the team left them too far off the pace during the race last Sunday.

"The Canadian Grand Prix was a race that I've looked forward to all season," wrote the 25-year-old Belgian driver.

"I knew how great the city was, but this was my first time out on track. And I must say I really enjoyed the place – it is one of the best on the calendar."

After getting to learn the track in first free practice, Vandoorne lost some time in FP2 after the team discovered a problem with his MGU-H. That meant he was unable to complete any long run simulations.

"That missed run hurt us especially because Fernando hadn't done any long runs either," he noted. "It meant we didn't have any information on how the tyre was going to behave or what the fuel effect was going to be."

That lack of data proved crucial going into the rest of the race weekend.

Although he felt he should have made it through to the second round of qualifying, a yellow flag meant Vandoorne missed out and ended in 16th place. That aways meant he was up against it on Sunday.

Villeneuve unimpressed by Vandoorne

"The start of the race for me was very good though," he said. "I gained a couple of positions and I was running in 11th place after the first lap.

"But then it all went wrong after the Virtual Safety Car that was brought out after Max Verstappen stopped. There was some confusion with Kevin Magnussen, who overtook me before the VSC period ended.

"I lost some time in this, and then I had a Williams and a Renault very close to me. It was impossible to defend from them on the big straights. They came flying past me!

"After that, it was just a case of bringing the car home. I didn't push on one single lap of the race because of the amount of fuel saving we were having to do."

Vandoorne added that it could be much the same in the next race, the Azerbaijan Grand Prix in Baku City.

"I think we will face a similar situation to Canada," he said. "Let's see what happens. We will keep pushing as hard as we can."

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Andrew Lewin

Andrew first became a fan of Formula 1 during the time when Michael Schumacher and Damon Hill were stepping into the limelight after the era of Alain Prost, Nigel Mansell and Aryton Senna. He's been addicted ever since, and has been writing about the sport now for nearly a quarter of a century for a number of online news sites. He's also written professionally about GP2 (now Formula 2), GP3, IndyCar, World Rally Championship, MotoGP and NASCAR. In his other professional life, Andrew is a freelance writer, social media consultant, web developer/programmer, and digital specialist in the fields of accessibility, usability, IA, online communities and public sector procurement. He worked for many years in magazine production at Bauer Media, and for over a decade he was part of the digital media team at the UK government's communications department. Born and raised in Essex, Andrew currently lives and works in south-west London.