Stoffel Vandoorne ‘hasn’t forgotten how to drive’ amid downforce loss

Stoffel Vandoorne has asserted that he “hasn’t forgotten how to drive” after finishing qualifying for the German Grand Prix as the slowest driver.

Vandoorne finished at the foot of the timesheets in both of Friday’s practice sessions, a position he replicated in qualifying, after McLaren broke its curfew overnight in a bid to address his woes.

Vandoorne’s McLaren team-mate Fernando Alonso confirmed that “it’s the second race that we’ve seen less downforce and a problem with that [Stoffel’s] car” and urged a fix to be found.

GERMAN GRAND PRIX: Qualifying results | Photo gallery

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The Belgian’s future in Formula 1 remains unclear and it marked the fourth straight event at which he was unable to escape Q1, and he expressed his frustration in the aftermath.

“The situation today was the same as at Silverstone,” he said.

“Since we hit the ground there we were the last car by some margin, and it’s turned out the same today and all weekend so far.

“It’s frustrating as we’ve changed a lot of parts on the car to try and fix the problems, but we haven’t yet managed to find a solution.

“I definitely haven’t forgotten how to drive. Between me and Fernando the cars are in a similar spec, but we can see some issues on the data on my side.

“The team has put in a lot of effort to change parts already, but it seems like we’re not really moving forward much and the team is looking at various options to see what else we can do.

“The priority now is to find a solution for the problem we have.

“Tomorrow I have nothing to lose, so the only way is up from here and hopefully we can extract a little bit more out of it.”

Vandoorne will move up to 19th on the grid as a result of Daniel Ricciardo’s engine-related penalty, while Alonso is set to line up from 11th.