Stoffel Vandoorne rates his drive to seventh at the Malaysian Grand Prix the best of his fledgling Formula One career so far.
Having out-qualified Fernando Alonso on Saturday Vandoorne continued his strong vein of form into the race, showing further progress from the McLaren-Honda package by finishing ahead of both Williams cars.
"I can definitely say that, for me, that was my best drive in Formula One until now," Vandoorne said. "To finish seventh on the circuit like this, and being very quick all weekend, to qualify seventh, we thought it was going to be very difficult today, and we had a fantastic race.
"I got a great, great start -- and then we knew it was going to be difficult to keep the Force Indias and Williamses behind, but only [Sergio] Perez came through. We pushed like crazy, lap after lap, trying to manage the fuel and tyres at the same time.
"Tough conditions out there, but we managed the gap with Lance [Stroll] very well, so extremely satisfied with seventh."
The result means Vandoorne, the 2015 GP2 champion, has claimed back-to-back seventh-place finishes and has moved ahead of two-time world champion teammate Fernando Alonso in the championship. The Belgian, who did not score a point until the Hungarian Grand Prix in July, thinks his recent improvement has helped the whole team.
"The last races have been very, very good as well for me. I'm definitely working hard with the team, putting the pressure on [Alonso], and it's good for the team spirit."