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McLaren's Stoffel Vandoorne was unable to repeat the heroics of his F1 debut a year ago in Bahrain on Sunday, as he became the victim of a water pressure issue that plagued his Honda power unit and forced his team to push his car away from the grid and into the garage.
Vandoorne would have started from P17, with his team-mate Alonso - who had had an overnight engine change - two places ahead, but instead McLaren was faced with its second failure to start in Bahrain in three years, after Jenson Button was also forced to miss the race in 2015.
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In both instances, problems with the Honda engine were involved - underlining the ongoing difficulties the Japanese company and McLaren are tackling together.
"It's a real shame that we weren't even able to start the race today," said Vandoorne later. "The team discovered a water pressure issue on the way to the grid. It's disappointing, obviously, that we come all the way here and can't even start the race.
"We knew from the start of the season that the situation we were in was going to be difficult. I have an extremely good relationship with the team, I believe that we'll get on top of these issues, and I'm confident that I can do a good job when everything comes together. We're going through a hard time - it's not fun for us to go through this - but this is what it is at the moment, and today shows that."
Mason Hawker
Azerbaijan Grand Prix
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At this rate its beyond unacceptable. 3 races and hardly a finish.