McLaren drivers Fernando Alonso and Stoffel Vandoorne expressed confidence that they can make their usual race gains, after another dismal one-lap display in Azerbaijan.
McLaren has failed to make it into Q3 so far this season, but has scored points in each race, and holds fourth place in the Constructors’ Championship.
McLaren was unable to break its recent one-lap trend around the streets of Baku, with Alonso qualifying in 13th position, while Vandoorne was knocked out in Q1.
In full: Azerbaijan GP qualifying results
“Qualifying still isn’t the strongest part of our weekend, but a lot usually happens during a street race, and at this track in particular,” said Alonso
“There’s no room for mistakes around this circuit: it’s very windy, dusty, the walls are very close, and you cannot push or over-drive the car. It’s also a mentally tough race, so I think tomorrow is going to be both crazy and fun at the same time.
“This weekend, we seem to have improved our top-speed compared to previous races, but we’ve also compromised some grip in the corners.
“Still, during Q2, the wind picked up a little, and we were losing speed along the straights due to the headwind.
“This is the third time in a row where I’ve qualified 13th, and we normally seem to score good points from that position. Hopefully tomorrow will be another one of those good days.”
Vandoorne added: “It’s been a bit of a tough weekend for me.
“During practice, it seemed like, whenever I was on-track, I was in the wrong place, or encountered a yellow-flag at the wrong time.
“In fact, Q1 was probably the first session this weekend where I finally managed to complete a quick-lap.
“In the end, I was much happier with the car; we still lack a bit of top speed, so we really need to follow another car to benefit from their speed, and I missed out on that on my final lap.
“Still, our race performance looks better than qualifying. We’ve seen so many incidents under braking this weekend; and that’s a real strength of our car, it feels very good under braking, and that’s a key requirement for the race.
“I think we can pull together a good race performance tomorrow.”
