George Russell insists his Mercedes "definitely" could not have secured pole position for the sprint at the United States Grand Prix.
The British driver set his final time earlier than his rivals at the Circuit of the Americas, which cost him as the track continued to evolve.
Max Verstappen and the McLarens of Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri went quicker than the W16, which could be expected as Russell was shuffled down the order.
However, Nico Hulkenberg sprung a "real surprise" to usurp him ahead of the leading trio getting their last push lap on the board.
It is the first time all season the Stake driver has reached Q3 of any qualifying session. He will line up in fourth for the sprint.
That pushed Russell down the order to fifth. After the grid-setting session, the 27-year-old was quick to put his performance into context.
When asked if he felt that was pretty much where he will be for the rest of the weekend in Austin, the Mercedes driver replied: "No. But could we have been on pole? Definitely not.
"Nico [Hulkenberg] did an amazing lap to go P4. I think that was a real surprise, so congrats to him.
"But as we've sort of been saying all year, on the good days, we're in the fight, on the bad days, we're P5 — and today wasn't a good day. We just got P5. Sprint races are tricky sometimes."
It was not all doom and gloom from the five-time grand prix winner, however. He remains optimistic that his W16 is better in race trim.
"I think potentially we have a better race car than we do qualifying car," Russell said.
"We're struggling a lot in the high speed, but I think when you're going a bit slower in the race through the high speed, and the cars not as low to the ground, it could be a bit faster.
"But, yeah, I think this is roughly where we're at, sort of in the fight for P4."
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