Stoffel Vandoorne accepted responsibility for again failing to escape Q1, believing he hit the wall four times on his “messy” final push lap in Singapore.
Vandoorne has endured a difficult sophomore campaign with McLaren, has failed to score since Azerbaijan, and has not made it through to Q2 since Canada.
McLaren has already dropped Vandoorne from its 2019 line-up in favour of protégé Lando Norris, leaving the Belgian scrabbling to remain on the grid next season.
Vandoorne trailed McLaren team-mate Fernando Alonso by eighth-tenths in Q1, leaving the 26-year-old down in 18th position, ahead of only the Williams drivers, as Alonso ultimately wound up 11th.
“My last run on the new tyres was extremely messy from my side – I touched the wall about four times I think,” Vandoorne said.
“We should definitely have been in Q2 as that was when the track was at its best. It’s a shame because the pace was there to progress. I think the car is okay so that’s good.
“I tried to squeeze everything out of the car. When you do a bit too much and you overheat the tyres, the lap-time doesn’t come towards you. It’s all about qualifying here.”
Vandoorne is nonetheless optimistic of working his way through the field at a venue where he claimed his best F1 result to date – seventh – 12 months ago.
“I think our race pace is usually a bit better than qualifying – we’ve known that since the start of the year – but around here it’s very difficult to overtake, so it’ll have to be about a good strategy,” he said.
“The key will be to see what the runners on Hypersofts can do, how long they can make them last. At least we have free tyre choice so hopefully we can gamble a little bit.
“Anything can happen here in Singapore. There’s 100 per cent chance of a Safety Car so there’ll probably be one at some point.”
