McLaren's Stoffel Vandoorne has hailed his seventh place finish in the Malaysian Grand Prix his "best drive" to date, having only lost one position on where he started, thanks to a charging Sebastian Vettel.
The Belgian rookie qualified seventh, but with Kimi Räikkönen failing to start the race, he moved up to sixth. During the start he got up to a high of fifth behind the two Red Bulls and Mercedes cars, before falling back as McLaren-Honda's straight-line speed deficit cost him on Sepang's long straights.
"I can definitely say that, for me, that was my best drive in Formula 1 until now," described Vandoorne.
"To finish seventh on the circuit like this, and being very quick all weekend, to qualify seventh, we thought it was going to be very difficult today, and we had a fantastic race.
"I got a great, great start – and then we knew it was going to be difficult to keep the Force Indias and Williams' behind, but [of those] only [Sergio] Perez came through.
"We pushed like crazy, lap after lap, trying to manage the fuel and tyres at the same time. Tough conditions out there, but we managed the gap with Lance very well, so extremely satisfied with seventh."
Vandoorne's six points moves him up to 14th in the standings, two places ahead of team-mate Fernando Alonso.
"The last races have been very, very good as well for me,” he added. "I’m definitely working hard with the team, putting the pressure on [Alonso], and it’s good for the team spirit."
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