Lewis Hamilton was downcast but "not surprised" to be more than a second and a half down on pole position in qualifying for the Azerbaijan Grand Prix.
Charles Leclerc will start the race in Baku from the front after a very impressive lap to see off his rivals from Red Bull. Sergio Perez pipped his team-mate Max Verstappen into second to start on the front row, while Carlos Sainz wasn't far behind in the other Ferrari.
Mercedes may well be pleased with their qualifying result as it happens, with George Russell starting fifth and Hamilton just two places further back – Pierre Gasly is the man who split the two Brits. It gives both drivers a strong chance of scoring points at a track which has caused them all sorts of problems this weekend.
The bumpy nature of the street circuit and long straight to the start finish line have caused extreme porpoising at times, which left Hamilton feeling "sore" after Friday's practice sessions. With that in mind, starting in the top seven may be seen as something of an achievement by the team.
But less pleasing will be just how far they were behind the front-runners, with Russell and Hamilton 1.3 seconds and 1.5 seconds behind Leclerc respectively. Asked if he had expected to be so far back this weekend, Hamilton told Sky Sports F1: "I'm not surprised, I mean it was the same as in Monaco."
But he appeared to be more optimistic when asked about Sunday's race. "There's lots to look forward to. It's a tricky and chaotic race, lots that can happen," he added. "We're in the top 10 after a really difficult qualifying session, because we were constantly pushing.
"We have a very small window where we can work this car, and everything we try doesn't give us what we want, so we make a lot of changes which often come up with the same solution – bouncing – which makes us lose a lot of performance.
"All the performance is when you get the car low, so we said 'okay, let's take a beating on our backs and necks and get the car as low as possible to get that performance'. It's bouncing a little more than the other car, but we're still there – just very slow on the straights. Maybe we'll have better race pace, who knows?"
