Stoffel Vandoorne admitted Thursday practice in Monaco did not go as well as his McLaren F1 Team would have liked at the Circuit de Monaco.
The Belgian struggled in the morning session as he finished fifteenth but improved to eighth in the afternoon while bettering the times of team-mate Fernando Alonso in both sessions.
“It’s been a pretty tricky Thursday, actually.
“The sessions didn’t go as smoothly as we’d wanted: FP1 was difficult, but we made a big step during FP2.
“That was when things came together, but I still think we can take another step forward for Saturday and be in a better position for qualifying.”
Monaco is a track that the drivers need full confidence in the car at and Vandoorne admitted that the McLaren was not as easy to drive as ideally, he would like.
“Confidence is everything around here.
“The car was a bit of a handful and a bit unpredictable today, so we struggled a little bit.
“Still, by the end, we managed to set some decent lap-times.”
The midfield looks as tight as ever this weekend and Vandoorne is aware that anything less than 100% could see him knocked out early.
“The times are so close – you can’t leave anything on the table this weekend or else you’ll find yourself out in Q1.
“It’s going to be up to us to make the best out of it, do everything perfectly and do a proper job.
“Fortunately, I still feel there is a bit to come from us.”
