Stoffel Vandoorne will drive for McLaren in 2018 season
Stoffel Vandoorne has been handed a second season with McLaren.
The 25-year-old scored the first point of his rookie campaign after finishing 10th in Hungary at the final race before the sport's summer break.
And the expected confirmation of his McLaren seat for next year comes on the eve of his home race at Sunday's Belgian Grand Prix as Formula One returns to action following its traditional mid-season break.
The identity of Vandoorne's team-mate in 2018 remains unclear however, with Fernando Alonso's current three-term deal due to expire at the end of the season.
Alonso, the two-time world champion, wants a car to compete for the world championship, but McLaren's on-going troubles with engine manufacturer Honda has desperately thwarted their progress in recent years.
Vandoorne has struggled to compete with Alonso during his debut campaign, but the former GP2 champion paid tribute to the Spaniard and his McLaren team following the formal announcement of his contract extension on Wednesday.
"I'm delighted that the team has now formally announced that I will continue to race for them next year," said Vandoorne, a 5/2 shot with Sky Bet to finish in the points at Spa.
"I'll be able to approach the second half of my rookie season with total focus on the job in hand, namely getting the very most I can out of my car, my engineers, and everything and everyone around me.
"I've already learned such a huge amount in the first half of my first season in Formula One - from my engineers, from my mechanics, from Eric Boullier, from Zak Brown, and also from Fernando Alonso, who is a brilliant driver and an excellent team-mate."
McLaren's racing director Boullier added: "When we announced at the end of 2016 that Stoffel would be a McLaren Honda race driver for 2017, we indicated that our plan was that he'd race for us for a number of years.
"That plan hasn't changed, and I'm very happy therefore to be able to confirm that he'll continue to race for us next season.
"Like all rookies, he's had to learn a lot in the first half of his first Formula One season, but we have great confidence in him, and he's getting better and better all the time. His team-mate is a tough opponent - that's an understatement in fact, because he's arguably the best driver in the sport today - but Stoffel's robust talent and fierce ambition make us sure that he'll achieve great successes with us in the future."
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