Yuki Tsunoda was left frustrated with his qualifying effort in Saudi Arabia as he continues to struggle with finding the limit of the Red Bull car.
Tsunoda ended the Q3 session in eighth place, marking his best qualifying result in his three attempts to date with the Milton Keynes-based squad.
However, the Japanese driver was just over nine-tenths of a second down on team-mate Max Verstappen, who secured pole position for the grand prix.
The RB21 challenger is known to have a narrow operating window, which once again bit Tsunoda when he tried to push during Q3.
“I had a massive snap in Turn 4,” Tsunoda told media including RacingNews365.
“When I push more, [this] unpredictable snap keeps happening and it’s just really hard to reach the limit.
“That’s why when it comes to Q3, when it all counts, you push hard. In VCARB, you know where the limit is and I can squeeze out the last few milliseconds.
“Currently, it’s hard to find the limit and I’m getting messy laps all the time. I’m really frustrated [about] that.”
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Tsunoda argued the error at Turn 4 cost him “a lot” of time but acknowledged his lap without the mistake would not have been enough to make up to the deficit to Verstappen.
The 24-year-old explained he became further detached from the car as the weekend progressed.
“When the track is quite green [low grip], at that point the lap time is okay,” Tsunoda said.
“But when the track gets more grip, it just starts to have a limit. That's the main learning I had.”
Tsunoda is looking to add to his point-scoring tally on Sunday, having bagged a 10th place finish last time out in Bahrain.
As he looks to progress through the field en route to a strong points finish, Tsunoda revealed his car's set-up is more angled towards a stable balance for the grand prix rather than qualifying.
“The setup also is not really thinking about the short run, it was actually more towards the long run,” he said.
“I have slightly more confidence than the pace I had in FP2, but we didn't have great pace, to be honest, in the long run.
“It won't be an easy race, but I want to at least get one car tomorrow.”
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