Russian GP: Alonso says McLaren's Vandoorne penalty is 'incredible'

Vandoorne, whose start of the season has been plagued by reliability issues, is the first driver who will have to serve an engine-related grid penalty this year.

Honda detected a suspected problem with the MGU-K on Vandoorne's car at the end of FP2 and opted to replace the entire engine.

That includes Vandoorne's fifth MGU-H and fifth turbocharger of 2017, pushing the Belgian over the FIA's limit for engine component use through a season and earning him a 15-place grid drop.

"It's incredible that you have to be penalised in the fourth race," said Alonso.

"I'm sorry for him because he's a super driver and a super talent, and he's having a difficult start in Formula 1.

"Let's hope he's lucky and we can both be close to the points."

Alonso, who is yet to finish a race this season, admitted he is not expecting the situation to improve over the need few races.

"We've had a lot of retirements in these races and having these problems in practice doesn't make you feel very confident, but the car is exactly the same it was in Bahrain, so if we had problems in the first three races we'll still have them here and we'll still have them in Barcelona, in Monaco, etc," he said.

Honda is planning to introduce an upgraded specification in the next few races, but Alonso is not expecting any big changes before the Canadian Grand Prix.

When asked about the updated Honda engine, he joked: "Where? I know nothing. I have to inform myself. I don't think we'll have anything until Canada.

"Time-wise realistically it's hard that we'll have anything from Honda. From McLaren we'll have aero updates and I think in Spain the car will be more competitive in terms of chassis. And in Monaco [which Alonso will miss to contest the Indianapolis 500] too.

"And in Canada let's hope we have something from Honda so we can fight more seriously."