Mercedes driver Lewis Hamilton says he intends to “have some fun” in Sunday’s Chinese Grand Prix after qualifying down in 18th place.
The seven-time champion’s worst qualifying since crashing at the 2017 Brazilian Grand Prix was caused by a mistake at the Turn 14 hairpin.
Hamilton said: “There is a tailwind there but I just seemed to have a pinch [on the brakes] every time.
“The car is on a knife-edge but I will have some fun from there.”
Hamilton’s error came after he had finished second to Red Bull’s Max Verstappen in the sprint race earlier on Saturday, his best performance of what has been a difficult season so far.
Hamilton said he had changed the car significantly after the sprint in an attempt to learn more about it, as Mercedes struggle to understand why their new model is not performing as expected.
His team-mate George Russell qualified eighth, with Verstappen leading Sergio Perez to a Red Bull one-two, from Aston Martin’s Fernando Alonso, the McLarens of Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri and Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz of Ferrari.
“It was not my best qualifying lap,” Hamilton said. “We made massive changes going into qualifying, just wanted to experiment.
“George decided to go one way, much different to what he had and I went this other direction to just see if we could find something. It didn’t feel terrible, just I couldn’t stop the car in Turn 14.
“I went that way and I don’t know whether its’s the right one.”
Russell said: “If we maximised everything today maybe we could have been P4.
“We made a lot of changes from the sprint race, definitely some small differences in the cars. I was quite happy.
“Red Bull are still in a league of their own and we all need to do a better job to catch them.”
Russell said he was “confident we have a better race car” and predicted a fight for the places behind Red Bull and Ferrari with the McLarens and Alonso.
Norris agreed that the Ferraris were likely to be the second fastest cars behind the Red Bulls in the race.
“It buys a bit of leeway on the Ferraris but more than likely they will be overtaking us tomorrow [Sunday]. I think our battle will be with the Aston and probably the Mercedes at some point.
“Red Bull are a mile ahead and Ferrari are another big chunk ahead of us but with everyone else we are there or thereabouts and it should be a good race.”
Norris said he had “no chance” of a podium, adding: “The Red Bulls will probably lap everyone. Ferrari will not be as quick as them but they will be quick enough. They are out of our league.”
Leclerc said: “We have a good car for the race. We are good in tyre management, we just need to do a good start, have a clean first couple of laps and then use our pace to come back in front. Podium is the target for sure.”
Sainz was the subject of a protest from Aston Martin following a crash in the second session.
The Spaniard managed to return the car to the pits after losing control at the final corner and lightly hitting the barrier, and he took part in the rest of qualifying.
Aston Martin protested on the grounds of a rule that says that “any driver whose car stops on the track during the qualifying session will not be permitted to take any further part in that session”.
Stewards ruled that as he had not received outside assistance, it was correct to allow him to continue, and the rules will be amended accordingly.
Verstappen, who has won three of the four races so far this season and retired from the other with a brake problem, said: “We should be quick, normally.
“But after a sprint a lot of people can analyse more what they and we are doing. So naturally the gaps will become a bit smaller but I am still very confident we can have a good race.”
Alonso said: “We are completely out of position for tomorrow with whatever position we are. I think seventh, eighth, ninth is our natural order tomorrow when we see the chequered flag, but we are qualifying extremely well this year and we’ll take it.”