BAKU, AZERBAIJAN - JUNE 25: Marcus Ericsson of Sweden driving the (9) Sauber F1 Team Sauber C36 Ferrari leads Stoffel Vandoorne of Belgium driving the (2) McLaren Honda Formula 1 Team McLaren MCL32, Fernando Alonso of Spain driving the (14) McLaren Honda Formula 1 Team McLaren MCL32 and Pascal Wehrlein of Germany driving the (94) Sauber F1 Team Sauber C36 Ferrari during the Azerbaijan Formula One Grand Prix at Baku City Circuit on June 25, 2017 in Baku, Azerbaijan. (Photo by Mark Thompson/Getty Images)

Stoffel Vandoorne came tantalizingly close to securing his first pints of the year for the McLaren Honda team on Sunday when he finished twelfth around the Baku City Street Circuit.

While he was still two places away from a points scoring result, he had the two Saubers of Marcus Ericsson and Pascal Wehrlein right in front of him, but despite a strong race, he was unable to move his Honda powered contender past them.

If it hadn't been for a flat spot on his Pirelli's, the Belgian driver would have been right up there with his teammate Fernando Alonso, but unfortunately he had to come in for a late stop to change tyres, putting him 17 seconds behind the two Saubers in tenth and eleventh.

However, thanks to the fresh rubber, Stoffel was able to close that 17-second deficit but he couldn't quite get a pass to stick along the track's long final straight.

“I made a decent start – there was a lot of mayhem, a lot of debris – and I had to avoid a couple of slow cars on the run down to Turn Three, but I managed to keep my nose clean,” he explained. “Then the team did a great job to cover Romain Grosjean, I switched to the Option tyre and came out ahead of him. I had good pace on that tyre, but then the red flag came out and that took away my advantage as it meant everybody on the Prime could now get effectively a free tyre-change.”

“After my final stop, I was catching the Saubers by 1.5s per lap, but once I'd caught them it was impossible to overtake. They were saving all their energy until the last corner; I was trying to do the same, in order to get the maximum boost available, but I just didn't have the pace in the car to make it past them. Apart from that, our pace was strong. It's great for the team to score our first points of the season – we deserve it.”

Maybe in Austria Stoffel!