Speaking after the race, he said: ”To be honest I wasn’t really frustrated throughout the race, I was just doing my own race. The pace was not there, we had a bad pit stop, I think our strategy was not on point today even though it wouldn’t have changed our position. I think we could have done a better race in general.
“It doesn’t help that you can’t run full power for most of the race with the engine because we had an issue. So yeah, all in all a pretty bad race. [The engine issue] is really bad at the moment and, before Baku, we have a lot of work to do to basically change the whole car.”
The underwhelming result, coupled with Sergio Perez’s P8 finish, has allowed McLaren to close down the constructors’ deficit to the Milton Keynes outfit to just eight points with eight races still to go.