Alonso: French GP "the worst performance of the year"

Fernando Alonso retired just three laps from the end of the French Grand Prix with a suspension issue after a horrible weekend for him and McLaren. The Spaniard came into this weekend off the back of a rather more successful weekend in France, winning Le Mans just a week ago.

Alonso failed to make it out of Q1 on Saturday, as did team-mate Stoffel Vandoorne, the pair starting the race 16th and 18th place respectively.

In the race, the pace was no better, Alonso especially struggling, at one point even running behind the Williams pair of Lance Stroll and Sergey Sirotkin.

“This was by far the worst performance of the year,” said a despondent Alonso. “So, I really hope it is a one-off and not the normality.

“It was all the race on the back foot, and from the start we had to avoid a lot of accidents in front of us.

“We could not even see the chequered flag, so a not very competitive weekend for us.

“But in five days we have another opportunity to forget this, and I really hope that Austria and especially Silverstone will be better circuits for us.”