Vandoorne confident of matching Alonso

Stoffel Vandoorne believes he is beginning to match the performances of world champion McLaren team-mate Fernando Alonso. The Spanish veteran has bested his Belgian colleague in all three races in the 2018 Formula 1 season in both qualifying and race days.

McLaren have struggled for pace since ditching Honda power units for Renault engines this season, with Alonso and Vandoorne failing to reach Q3 in any race this year.

Alonso has outqualified his team-mate by a place in Australia, Bahrain and China, going on to record points finishes each time.

Vandoorne scored points in Melbourne and Shanghai and says he is beginning to match Alonso's adaptability.

"He knows how to overcome a few things, how to build his weekend towards that critical moments," said Vandoorne of his vaunted team-mate.

"It's one of his strengths, whatever the conditions and circumstances he always delivers at 99 per cent and that for me has been very good to learn out of.

"I definitely feel I became a lot stronger and am able to do this myself a lot more now whenever conditions are difficult or the situation is tricky."

Competing directly against such a talented team-mate has given Vandoorne confidence that he can make good on his title-winning potential which came to the fore in his 2015 GP2 triumph.

"I have a great benchmark, I know exactly when I'm up there, fighting for the last few hundredths, we're getting 100 per cent out of the package," he said.

"If I want to be world champion one day I'll have to beat a world champion.

"It's good to have that."