Fernando Alonso ‘frustrated’ by ‘amazing’ performance deficit

Fernando Alonso has vented his frustration at the McLaren MCL32's “amazing” power and performance deficit compared to its rivals.

The Spaniard struggled throughout the Bahrain Grand Prix to keep drivers behind and spent most of the race fighting just outside the points.

He slipped back slightly in the closing stages before slowing with an engine problem, retiring in the pits with just a few laps remaining.

Alonso regularly expressed his annoyance at his McLaren MCL32’s lack of top speed, at one point saying: “I’ve never raced with less power in my life”.

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McLaren seemingly lost some of the race pace it had at the first two races, while Stoffel Vandoorne was unable to make the start due to a water pressure issue.

“It was a frustrating race,” Alonso said. “The deficit in power and performance we had on the straights today was amazing.

“Sometimes I looked in the mirrors at the beginning of the straights and saw the other cars 300, 400 metres behind, then the next thing I see when I come on the brakes is that car alongside me.

“We were running close to the points but that’s not enough. Today we never had the pace we had in Australia and China, and, in the end, we had a problem and we decided to retire the car.

“It’s frustrating. When the red lights go off you’re motivated and you start fighting, but you’re so behind on the straights that there’s no way you can defend your position.

“You fight in a fair way with everyone, but you don’t enjoy the battle. Everyone in the team has been working very hard over this weekend, day and night, but we’ll keep working hard, and we hope to improve in due course.”