McLaren "astonished" by lack of pace in Bahrain qualifying
Eric Boullier says McLaren will launch a major investigation into its failure to make Q3 for the Bahrain Grand Prix.
Fernando Alonso and Stoffel Vandoorne only managed to qualify in 13th and 14th positions respectively, despite Alonso having shown top-10 form in FP3 on Saturday.
"Obviously it's a bit of a surprise, based on the pace we had in FP3," Boullier told Sky Sports F1 immediately after Q2. "There is a need for a big investigation.
"On his last lap Fernando found some pace in Sector 2 and Sector 3, which would have helped earlier. We need to find out what's going on.
"The balance is fine, obviously there's a lack of grip, that's my conclusion for the poor performance, but they don't report anything wrong."
McLaren scored a double points finish in the Melbourne season opener, which Alonso had started from a top-10 position.
"We were struggling last year in Bahrain as well, which is something we need to investigate for this layout," Boullier added.
"Our pace in Australia was not a dream, it was real in the race, and we know it will be better here tomorrow than the one-lap pace.
"But we need to find out why. We need to ask some questions at the factory.
"Like all of us on the pitwall, to be honest, I'm a bit astonished and we need to understand what happened."
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