Charles Leclerc and Valtteri Bottas both saw opportunities slip away after a difficult end to qualifying for the Canadian Grand Prix.
For the Monegasque, third place was still a good result but faced with the chance to challenge Lewis Hamilton and Sebastian Vettel for pole, he would fall a significant six-tenths short.
Identifying the problem he had, Leclerc, who may still face the wrath of the stewards for incorrectly rejoining the racetrack during Q2, believes he struggled to adapt to the ever-improving track conditions in Montreal.
“I struggled with the car, with the set-up may be,” he explained.
“I felt quite good with Q1 but then I didn’t really follow the track, more the track was getting better. So I need to work on that, the set-up, and try and have the right set-up for the final Q3 time.
“Congratulations to Seb, he completely deserved it, and hopefully we’ll have a better race on my side tomorrow.”
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In Bottas’ side, the situation was more dire as a spin on his first attempt in Q3 left him with just a single set of tyres to go for a flying lap.
His second attempt would then be riddled with small errors leaving him just sixth on the grid, behind Daniel Ricciardo and Pierre Gasly.
“I’m not sure what happened,” said the Mercedes driver. “The first run was my mistake, I had a snap out of Turn 2, I was trying to minimise the time and trying to keep going.
“Then I was on the back foot but I was still confident I could do it, but it was a messy lap.
“I need to have a look in the mirror and find out what went wrong. For sure you can overtake here so let’s see what difference there is in strategy.
“There’s no point in giving up on anything tomorrow this is racing, for sure I’m not going to give up.”
With teammate Lewis Hamilton starting second, however, Bottas needs a strong performance to stop the 17-point gap in the championship growing further on Sunday.
