Fernando Alonso says he is happy with his own performance, again out-qualifying Stoffel Vandoorne, in the wake of another lacklustre qualifying showing from McLaren.
McLaren has struggled for one lap pace in 2018 and lacked performance once more at the French Grand Prix, with Alonso and Vandoorne eliminated in Q1, taking 16th and 18th respectively.
Alonso maintained his 100 per cent one-lap record against Vandoorne in 2018, the only driver to do so over his team-mate, and expressed satisfaction with his personal display.
“I am happy with every single lap as I am two-tenths in front of Stoffel who won races here in smaller series,” he said.
“Again 8-0 in qualifying between us drivers so not much I can do.
“Two weeks ago we were P15 so one position on the borderline so it is not a surprise, in the team meeting this morning it was the expected position between P14 and P15 so it is more or less where we are.”
Alonso nonetheless exuded confidence over McLaren’s ability to recover positions in race trim.
“We’ll see because we may need some help from the front runners to recover places but so far we’ve been in the points in every single race,” he said.
“Only two retirements have stopped us scoring points at every single race so hopefully tomorrow we can be in that position again.”
Vandoorne, who will line-up from 17th after a grid penalty for Brendon Hartley, added: “It’s a very disappointing qualifying for us to have both cars eliminated in Q1, was not what we came here for.
“There was nothing particularly wrong with the balance of the car, the feeling was okay, we just lack a lot of pace.”
