McLaren's Stoffel Vandoorne has felt his Canadian Grand Prix was over from the very first lap after a picking up a puncture from the crash between Lance Stroll and Brendon Hartley.
Having got caught up in the aftermath of the incident which included pieces of debris to get caught underneath his MCL33, Vandoorne was forced into a two-stop strategy against the majority of the field making just the one trip down the pitlane.
"I think we were extremely unlucky from the start today," said the Belgian.
"We had a good launch off the grid, but with the accident that happened there was so much debris to find our way through into Turn 5, and it was impossible to avoid it.
"We had a front-right puncture, and we basically ran out of tyres already before we even really started the race, so it was a difficult day. A big piece of debris went under the car so we were forced to pit on the first lap and then lost a lot of time in the pit-stop as well. Before we even got into the race it was already over."
Despite enduring a tough weekend in Montreal, the 2015 GP2 champion believes he is consistently improving, contrary to how it may look on the timesheets against his rivals, acknowledging the team has some way to go to meet their competitive targets.
“On a personal note, on my side, it’s been very positive in terms of the progression we’ve made over the past couple of races," he added. "The disappointing thing here was our qualifying performance for the team as a whole. We knew that before coming here and unfortunately it got confirmed. We’ve got a lot of work ahead.
"It’s hard to tell how the next few races will be for us. We don’t want to make any predictions, and if you look at last year there were some races that we thought would be difficult but turned out to be alright. We have to wait and see.
"Paul Ricard will be a new track for everyone, and then Austria and Silverstone, so a busy couple of weeks ahead but I’m looking forward to that and hopefully we’ll have some better luck."
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