Lewis Hamilton says a mistimed run in Q2 left him stranded in the second segment of qualifying and has forced him to rely on strategy in Sunday's Miami Grand Prix to improve his fortunes.
Hamilton concluded qualifying a lowly P13 after enduring a messy session that included a brush with the wall at Turn 17 in Q1 as he took evading action to avoid the slow moving Haas of Kevin Magnussen.
The Briton made the Q2 cut but rued being sent out too late by his team for his final attempt to access qualifying's top-ten shootout, with the call landing him in traffic which hindered his efforts to warm up his tyres.
"That felt way too late, guys," Hamilton told his team over the radio after failing to gain a spot in Q3.
"It started out okay," he told the media after the session. "There was a couple of decent moments throughout the session.
"We generally have struggled to have the true pace to get into Q3 today. We were just right on the cusp of maybe not getting in.
"Then right at the end we’ve just gone out too late. I was at the back of maybe seven cars and I started my lap with just not enough temperature in the tyres."
Addressing Mercedes' performance issues, Hamilton singled out his car's lack of rear downforce as its main weakness but admitted that relative to Red Bull, the Brackley squad's W14 was lacking pace "everywhere".
"If you look at the Red Bull, for example, they can use a small rear wing and they’re fast on the straight and fast through the corners," he noted.
"For us we have to have a bigger wing to get anywhere near them in the corners. So I think we’re lacking rear downforce mostly.”
"We’re not where we want to be," he bemoaned. "I wish we had a car that we were able to contend for wins.
"So it’s tough for us. But we just keep our head down, I’ve just got to keep my head down and keep pushing."
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