Lewis Hamilton was left frustrated after a mistimed yellow flag denied him a proper shot at pole position for Saturday's Sprint event at the US Grand Prix in Austin.
The seven-time world champion was in competitive form during the earlier qualifying segments, clocking in each time among the top three.
However, the Mercedes driver's hopes of upholding his momentum were dashed in the final moments of SQ3.
Th Briton was on a hot lap, four-tenths up on his previous best, when a yellow flag caused by a spin by Williams rookie Franco Colapinto at Turn 12 forced him to abort his flyer. .
“Yeah, just got unlucky with the yellow flag and that's what it is,” Hamilton said. “I was four-tenths up.”
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Hamilton ultimately dropped to seventh on the grid, behind Nico Hulkenberg's Haas, while his Mercedes teammate George Russell managed to qualify second, just 0.012 seconds behind pole-sitter Max Verstappen.
Despite the setback, Hamilton was left with a good impression of Mercedes' upgraded W15, which brought immediate improvements to the car's performance.
“Yeah, it is what it is,” he said. “The good thing is the team's made a step with the car, the upgrade has clearly worked.
“I'm really grateful to everyone back at the factory for all the hard work over this period of time because it's been a tough slog for everyone to get the upgrade to make sure that they're working.
“So yeah it's not the end of the day, tomorrow we got another chance.”
©Mercedes
On the other side of the Mercedes garage, Russell also offered a positive assessment of his car's latest development package, to the point where he was actually surprised by its performance.
“The update kit we brought here seems to be working well although it has surprised us a little how competitive we were today,” Russell said.
“Sprint Qualifying was a tricky session, but I was able to put my lap in SQ3 together. The final sector in particular was strong and that is what enabled us to take P2.
“Lewis was very quick today, and he was unlucky to be caught out by a yellow flag. We both should have been up there but it's great that, as a team, we were back in the mix today.
“It is also clearly very close with several other outfits including Red Bull, Ferrari, and McLaren. Hopefully we can continue this form into the weekend and look forward to fighting at the front.”
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