Max Verstappen rued a disrupted Q2 session after being unable to challenge Mercedes for the front row at Imola.
The Red Bull driver had finished second in the only practice before qualifying on Saturday, but an electrical issue in Q2 resulted in a brief panic which threw the Dutchman out of his rhythm.
“It wasn’t really a great qualifying because of that. I only did two laps in Q1 and then you want to go out, get that run in in Q2, but then with the trouble it was a bit tricky,” he told Sky Sports.
“Also the medium tyres, okay we got through, we did our lap, but then it also gives you a good reference to get into Q3 and we definitely seemed to struggle with that.
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“The first run in Q3 there just wasn’t a lot of grip, I think the second run was a little bit better but it was just difficult.
“At the end of the day P3 not bad, but I personally expected to be a little bit closer [to Mercedes], to be able to fight them a little bit more,” Max conceded.
“I think after Q2 we just lost our way a little bit.”
As for teammate Alex Albon, he’ll start sixth after being left with only one run in Q3 following a track limits violation on his first lap.
However, across the entire day, the Thai driver had a whopping eight times deleted for running wide at Piratella and Variante Alta, leaving Albon unsurprisingly frustrated.
“Honestly I don’t know why we’re changing different corners and different track limits, just put gravel in and we’ll be fine,” he said.
“Always in that Q3 run two you try not to think about it but when you need to put a lap time on the board…
“I’m quite happy with the [four-tenths] gap to Max, it’s just very tight up there and one-tenth would have been P4,” Alex added.
“We can race from there, the track obviously no one knows really how it’s going to be.
“Degradation looks high on paper, so we’ll see.”