George Russell was left furious after a ‘disastrous’ qualifying in Hungary where Mercedes failed to put enough fuel in his car.
The British driver will start Sunday’s race from 17th on the grid after he was shockingly knocked out of the first qualifying session.
Fellow Brit Lando Norris took pole position ahead of McLaren teammate Oscar Piastri, with Red Bull’s Max Verstappen third, Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz fourth and the other Mercedes of Sir Lewis Hamilton fifth.
Changing weather at the Hungaroring were causing havoc but Russell looked set to at least make it through Q1 before the session was halted after Sergio Perez crashed and brought out the red flag.
Track conditions improved and drivers who stayed out were able to go quicker, eventually knocking out Russell who was forced to pit before the end after being under fueled by his team.
The 26-year-old was audibly seething with his team’s mistake, though acknowledged he himself had not been quick enough in the first place.
‘Why are we not putting enough fuel in the car to complete the session, guys? Traction is getting better and better,’ he said over the team radio.
‘Sorry about this session, guys. It’s on me.’
He later told Sky Sports: ‘There’s two factors. The first was I didn’t do a good enough job at the beginning. The second was we didn’t have enough fuel to complete the session.
‘It was a disaster from both aspects. We should have got through comfortably.
‘Not having enough fuel is a fundamental error from the team.’
Meanwhile, Norris is the closest challenger to Verstappen in the championship and having come agonisingly close to victory in the last few races, he’s even more determined to get only his second career win.
‘Very, very happy. Not an easy qualifying, different conditions like that, but always ending up on top is the best part of it all,’ the 24-year-old said afterward.
‘Especially for the team, a one-two is even better, so congrats to the team. We have already got confidence, so it’s not like we need a lot more of it or we are searching for it.
‘We have come into this weekend off the back of the last few happy and confident we can do a good job and we have a good car to fight for pole, which is what we did today.
‘We are in the best position for whatever the conditions throw at us. Two cars at the front row, we can control it from there, so as long as we stay where we are we’ll be happy.’
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