Isack Hadjar could only manage ninth place in sprint qualifying for the Singapore Grand Prix after describing his Red Bull as simply not drivable through the closing stages of the session.
The Frenchman had shown promise earlier in the day, but that form evaporated during the sprint shootout, with team-mate Max Verstappen instead topping the session ahead of George Russell and Charles Leclerc.
Hadjar's final lap of SQ3 was deleted for track limits, leaving him well down the order for the start of Saturday's race.
Asked to explain how his session unravelled, Hadjar said: "What seemed like a good start to the day turned into very poor performance.
"I felt very comfortable straight away in FP1 on the hard compound, but that was it really.
"I never got to have a good lap really, just fighting with the car, engine issues on the last run. I was just struggling. It was just weird.”
Hadjar denied that his switch to the soft tyres for SQ3 was a factor, as every other driver on track faced the same change in grip.
"The soft feels like a huge step compared to the medium compound, a lot more grip. It didn't really matter anyway, all the others were on the soft as well,” he said.
"I just don't think it's drivable right now."
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