Sergio Perez says the wet conditions in qualifying eroded the strong pace displayed by Racing Point in free practice, as the pink outfit failed to find its rhythm.
While Lance Stroll made the Q2 cut to qualify P13, Perez was unable to extricate himself from the lower tier of the field, the Mexican struggling to bring his tyres up to temperature and finishing Q1 in 17th position.
"It's a big disappointment," he said. "You know we were on for a great weekend as we have great pace in the dry. But in the wet we couldn't find our rhythm.
"I struggled a lot to generate any tyre temperature. It took me two to three laps to generate the temperature and at the end I was coming on a good lap but then the red flag stopped that lap.
"There's nothing we can do now other than think forward for tomorrow."
A dry race will revive Racing Point's speed but Perez expects to have his work cut out for him when he launches his race from the penultimate row of the grid.
"It's going be difficult to make any progress to overtake, but certainly we have a good car underneath us, so we will try everything," he said.
"I think we've done it before, so hopefully we can do it again tomorrow."
Racing Point team boss Otmar Szafnauer reckoned the wet session was a "learning experience" for his team.
"Ultimately a disappointing session when you consider the pace we have shown in the dry yesterday," he said.
"Both drivers were not totally comfortable in these very wet conditions and that's something we need to understand.
"It’s the first occasion to run in the wet this year and it was a big learning experience for everybody."
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