Vandoorne undermined by 'fundamental' problem with his MCL33

McLaren's Stoffel Vandoorne was once again left behind by team mate Fernando Alonso in qualifying, the Belgian labeling his car as simply "undriveable" Saturday afternoon.

Vandoorne, who will line up P17 on the British Grand Prix grid, was outqualified by Alonso by nine tenths of a second, the biggest margin so far this season.

However, the 26-year-old invoked a fundamental issue with his MCL33, but without identifying the problem.

"The car was undriveable and we don’t really understand why at the moment," Vandoorne said after qualifying.

"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.

• Alonso puts it on the limit in 'best qualifying of the year'

"In qualifying as well the feeling was pretty terrible. Very bad. Nothing more we could do, so very frustrating.

"I felt very uncomfortable, no pace at all. Impossible to really drive and to do anything. It’s a shame to come out of qualifying like this."

Vandoorne admitted he wasn't focused on the deficit to his team mate because it was a reflection of the difference between their two cars.

"I don’t care how much the gap is because it’s explainable with the issues we’re having with the car. I’m definitely not looking at that," he said.

"After yesterday, there was an explanation as to why the cars were performing quite differently.

"So this morning we made both set-ups the same but something didn’t feel right in the car at all and we weren’t able to find what the problem was before qualifying.

"I hope we can figure it out for tomorrow."

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