Unfortunately McLaren Honda driver Stoffel Vandoorne didn't get a good start to his Bahrain GP weekend when his car suffered an MGU-H issue at the end of the first ninety minute free practice session, curtailing his running and, in the interests of time, necessitating a full PU change, in order to get the young Belgian back out on track for FP2.
Stoffel's team did a sterling job to get him back on track – his MCL32 fitted with a new PU – 40 minutes into the second practice session. Unfortunately, after his second run, the engineers detected a problem with his MGU-H that put an end to his programme for the day. The team will now replace this element in time for tomorrow's running.
“It's been another troublesome day for me, let's say,” he said. “In FP1 we had some engine problems and again in FP2, so very limited running for me today. It's a shame to miss that much track time, especially in FP2 when the conditions are very similar to qualifying and the race. It's not been ideal, but hopefully tomorrow we'll have a smoother run and get on top of the issues.”
“We're going a bit blind into qualifying tomorrow, but Fernando did a lot of running today which was positive. We'll have to start with a bit of a base of information from Fernando's side of the garage, but I'm sure it'll be useful for us as well. Our reliability issues have meant the start of the season hasn't been ideal, as there hasn't been a weekend yet where we haven't had any issues. “
“It's a difficult situation at the moment, but this is how it is. We knew it would be another difficult weekend and hopefully tomorrow will be better for us. I don't really have any idea what might be possible for tomorrow – we shouldn't set ourselves any targets – I think we just need to make sure we have a smooth run, and we'll see what's possible.”
