Vandoorne says French GP was "a bit boring"

Stoffel Vandoorne was stuck in no-mans land for much of the French Grand Prix, starting 17th and finishing 12th, gaining three spots from others misfortune and only passing Sauber’s Marcus Ericsson.

It was a very poor weekend for McLaren, who have now gone three races without scoring points after scoring in each of the first five.

The barren run has seen Vandoorne drop to 15th in the drivers’ standings, ahead of only Marcus Ericsson, Brendon Hartley, Romain Grosjean and the Williams par of Sergey Sirotkin and Lance Stroll.

Meanwhile, McLaren have slipped further behind Renault in the chase for fourth in the constructors’ standings, now sitting 22 points away from the French team after their double points finish.

“I think first of all for us to be able to be in the points we always needed a bit of luck and to be honest the race was a bit boring,” Vandoorne said.

“We ran at our own pace, the pace was definitely better than it was in qualifying so once we can qualify higher up then it will push us higher up in the race as well.

“We’re lacking just general pace. There’s nothing particularly wrong with the balance of the car, it’s just the pace at the moment is not strong enough.”