Felipe Massa struggled to exploit the full potential of his Williams mount in qualifying, ending up way down the order in 15th place.
The disappointed Brazilian was eliminated in Q2 following a mistake on his part and a further setback related to poor timing and traffic, both of which deprived him from rivaling with his team mate Valtteri Bottas for a spot at the front end of the grid.
"Many things went wrong unfortunately," Massa rued.
"I had two laps in the middle of traffic and then tried everything on the last lap, but the rear tyres were gone. It was really frustrating."
In spite of the low-key performance Massa remains confident of a good showing come Sunday as the Williams appears well-suited to the Sochi circuit.
"This is definitely a good track for us, and since the beginning the car has showed its competitive. But starting so far behind we're going to have to have a good strategy and use the cars' performance to move up into the points tomorrow."
But the Williams driver knows that regardless of the circumstances or how events unfold, he has got his work cut out for him.
"We'll start working right away on tomorrow's strategy, "Massa concluded. "With the lack of running we've had it's not easy to understand the tyres and how they should be used. Do we start on the prime and do a long run or start of the options, we don't know yet. Also, the track should be better tomorrow compared to the last two days, so we'll see."
AS IT HAPPENED: Russian Grand Prix qualifying
Gallery: Carlos Sainz's crash in FP3
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