MCLAREN ANALYSE QUALIFYING FLOP

McLaren will launch a major investigation into the qualifying flop at the Bahrain Grand Prix, racing director Eric Boullier disclosed yesterday.

The former F1 superpower were amongst the backmarkers with former two-time world champion Fernando Alonso over two seconds slower than the pole-sitter Sebastian Vettel’s Ferrari in 13th and teammate Stoffel Vandoorne 14th.

The Frenchman said he and the team were disappointed that they failed to reproduce the pace they experienced in practice.

McLaren, powered this year by Renault engines after parting company with Honda, had secured a double points finish at the season-opening Australian Grand Prix.

“Obviously it’s a bit of a surprise, based on the pace we had in FP3,” Boullier said. “There is a need for a big investigation. On his last lap, Fernando found some pace in Sector 2 and Sector 3, which would have helped earlier. We need to find out what’s going on.

“The balance is fine, obviously there’s a lack of grip, that’s my conclusion for the poor performance, but they don’t report anything wrong.” Boullier recalled they had struggled in Bahrain last year too.

He added: “Our pace in Australia was not a dream. It was real in the race and we know it will be better here tomorrow than the one-lap pace.

“But we need to find out why. We need to ask some questions at the factory.” The result came hours before Alonso told a press briefing that he believed McLaren can unsettle top teams this season and challenge for podium places.