Categories: F1 News, Reports and Race ResultsMcLaren

'I showed I deserve my place' in F1 - Vandoorne

Stoffel Vandoorne believes his point-scoring debut for McLaren shows he deserves a place in F1.

The reigning GP2 champion was called up to replace the injured Fernando Alonso at the Bahrain Grand Prix and duly outqualified team-mate Jenson Button before finishing tenth to score McLaren's first point of the season. Reflecting on his debut weekend, Vandoorne says it proves he is worthy of a seat in F1.

"I think I demonstrated I deserve a place in the field," Vandoorne said. "Right from the start of the weekend I felt confident inside the car and I showed I had the speed in qualifying. The race was quite positive too, so I think I showed I deserve my place here."

While he would not reveal any targets ahead of the race, Vandoorne admits he had been hoping to secure a place in the top ten after his strong qualifying performance.

“Starting from P12 I thought there was a good chance to go and get one point at the end of the race and that’s what we managed to do. I think we maximised all the opportunities we had today and right at the end we were very close to Valtteri Bottas, so maybe there was another point to take but I’m still very happy with my result.

"This doesn’t really feel like a victory but I’m quite pleased with the way my weekend went and the fact I did a good job in the car right from the start. I didn’t make any operational mistakes, and that was very important, so, on top of that, to come away with one point it’s a bonus.

"In the first couple of laps there were a lot of battles going on, right and left, so it was a bit complicated for a first time in Formula One but I didn’t do too badly there. I could have made a better start but the rest of the weekend was good. This is clearly a weekend that will remain with me forever, to have this opportunity was exceptional, to be in Formula One was something I dreamed since I was a child, so that’s done and it went rather well."

RACE REPORT: Rosberg beats Raikkonen to win in Bahrain

AS IT HAPPENED: Bahrain Grand Prix

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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.