Vandoorne brushes off “strange” crash in Alonso repeat

Stoffel Vandoorne has described his off during the Abu Dhabi Pirelli tyre test as “a bit strange” after losing control of his McLaren-Honda at the same corner as team-mate Fernando Alonso who suffered a similar crash a day before.

On the opening day of the post-season tyre test, Alonso saw his testing action stalled by an early spin into the barriers on the entry into turn 19 and after handing over to team-mate Vandoorne for the final day – only for the Belgian to repeat the crash.

In Vandoorne’s off he clattered the barriers with the rear of his McLaren but after a second quick repair job in as many days for the McLaren mechanics the Belgian returned to track action to complete his full programme with 105 laps notched up and a best lap time of 1m 39.782s - 0.020s slower than Alonso's best effort from yesterday.

Vandoorne wasn’t hugely concerned about the off in the final day of track running for the MCL32 – and the end of the McLaren-Honda partnership – but was bemused by his near-identical off to Alonso’s 24 hours earlier.

“Today was generally a very good day – although it was a bit strange that I crashed in the same corner that Fernando did yesterday,” Vandoorne said. “Overall though, today has been very productive for me and the team, and it’s been really beneficial to be able to have a first feeling of the 2018 Pirelli compounds.

“We’ve done a lot of testing, completed some good mileage, and understood a lot about how the tyres behave. The past couple of days have now given us the tools to be able to analyse the data over the winter and have a good benchmark for next year.

“Now that we’ve reached the final day on track of the 2017 season, I’d like to say a big thanks to all my mechanics, engineers and the rest of the team – not only for working so hard on my car today – but for pushing hard throughout the whole year, despite the challenges.”

McLaren reserve and third driver Lando Norris was also in action on the final day of the Abu Dhabi test working on a rescheduled Pirelli tyre test after the initial test in Brazil was cancelled over security fears. The British driver completed 118 laps with no issues reported by McLaren.