Alonso: I can't do any more, we are not competitive

A dejected Fernando Alonso declared McLaren's display at the French Grand Prix 'by far the worst performance of the year' and that he and Stoffel Vandoorne are 'doing the best job in the world' as he limped to a third consecutive DNF.

The Spaniard could not hide his disappointment as a suspension problem in the closing stages meant that following Monaco and Canada, the former world champion failed to finish once again.

Team-mate Vandoorne didn't fare much better, ending in 12th and outside the points, and Alonso believes that both drivers physically can't do any more to try and enjoy any kind of success for McLaren.

He said post-race: “This was by far the worst performance of the year. So, I really hope it is a one off and not the normality.

“We are two drivers doing the best job in the world and we were not competitive today or this weekend. As I said yesterday, we are very bad but we are seventh in the world championship. So something good maybe is happening.”

A series of incidents on the first lap meant that cars were forced to use the run-off areas in order to escape, with Sebastian Vettel alone managing to collide with Valtteri Bottas, Romain Grosjean and Alonso himself on the first lap.

Alonso felt that he had played by the rules and stuck to the track, but others didn't and were not punished.

He added: “It was all the race on the back foot, and from the start we had to avoid a lot of accidents in front of us. People seemed to shortcut the circuit and nothing happened. We stay on the circuit and we came last just doing that.

“But it was not our race, and after we had a suspension problem at the end. We could not even see the chequered flag, so a not very competitive weekend for us.

“But in five days we have another opportunity to forget this, and I really hope that Austria and especially Silverstone will be better circuits for us.”

The timing of such a poor display will be of concern to McLaren, with Alonso yet to commit his future to the team beyond the end of this season.