Jenson Button blamed his poor Hungarian Grand Prix qualifying performance on a lack of grip from his McLaren.
The world champion failed to make it into Q3 and will start Sunday's race from 11th place on the grid after lapping more than 1.7 seconds off the pace of the dominant Red Bulls in Q2.
"In practice the car was working really well, but in qualifying I just couldn't find a balance," he said.
"We changed the car a little bit, but it didn't help a lot. The weather changed a bit [from practice]. I was happy with the car this morning, but this afternoon there was just no grip. It wasn't a great session and I'm not really happy."
Button, who lies second in the championship behind his team-mate Lewis Hamilton, remains optimistic of taking a strong points finish in Sunday's race.
"I'm on the clean side [of the grid] at least, and I've got two new sets of tires for the race as well. Hopefully we can fight from there."