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Vandoorne struggles to take positives from rough Monza weekend

Stoffel Vandoorne was left struggling to find any positives from his Italian Grand Prix weekend after an issue with his Honda power unit forced the McLaren Formula 1 driver into his fourth retirement of the season.

Vandoorne led McLaren's charge through qualifying, exceeding expectations by making Q3 and provisionally taking P8 on the grid for the start at Monza.

An engine issue ahead of the race forced Vandoorne to drop down the grid, only for a bold in-race strategy to put him in with a chance of a points finish heading into the second half of the grand prix.

The Belgian began to slow on-track coming out of Ascari on Lap 30, reporting a loss of power that ultimately forced him to return to the pits and park up, acting as the latest knock in McLaren-Honda's ailing partnership.

""We only knew on the lap that I retired that there was any sign of a problem, as I lost power. It's a similar issue to yesterday, and it's a shame because we changed the engine overnight for a brand new one today," Vandoorne said after the race.

"To have another problem in a race which was going very well is obviously frustrating. Hopefully it will be better in Singapore.

"It's pretty difficult to draw positives from a weekend like this. From my side, it had actually been a really positive weekend in terms of my driving and the performance I've put in - it's been very strong. The last few races have been very strong for me, in fact.

"It's just such a shame to finish with another retirement, and not have any reward for all of that. And we've had another issue today, but we have to move on.

"I guess it's possible I'll have another grid drop in Singapore, although we don't yet know exactly what the issue was today, despite it looking like a similar problem. We'll have to wait and see."

Zdroj: crash.net