McLaren driver Stoffel Vandoorne says he heads into qualifying for the Bahrain Grand Prix “a bit blind” following a difficult day of practice.
The Belgian racer suffered engine problems in both first and second practice on Friday, limiting his on-track running.
During FP1, his floor was changed, before he lost more time due to a MGU-H issue and McLaren completed a full power unit change.
A late start to FP2 saw him return to the track but mid-way through the session his car was hit by another MGU-H problem, with McLaren replacing that element for Saturday.
“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.”
Vandoorne finished as the slowest of the 20 drivers, almost three seconds off the pace.
