16:24 – Stoffel Vandoorne says that he feels “more comfortable than ever” at McLaren after making significant progress over the course of his first season in Formula 1.
Vandoorne entered F1 with high expectations, after storming to the GP2 crown, and impressing as a stand-in for the injured Fernando Alonso at last year’s Bahrain Grand Prix.
But he was unable to make it out of Q1 at the first five events of 2017, while experienced team-mate Alonso made Q2 four times and Q3 on home soil in Spain.
However, following “a lot of dedicated hard work”, Vandoorne made strides, out-qualifying Alonso for the first time at Silverstone, and scoring his first point at the Hungaroring.