Lewis Hamilton has admitted he had a 'pretty terrible' experience during Q2 at the F1 Las Vegas Grand Prix on Saturday morning.
The Briton had entered the session hoping to boost his chances of winning the main event on Sunday.
However, Hamilton was unable to perform at his best with the Stevenage-born racer finishing 11th on the grid.
Charles Leclerc will start Sunday's race on pole, with Max Verstappen in second after Carlos Sainz Jr was slapped with a grid penalty.
F1 news: Lewis Hamilton finished 11th during qualifying at the Las Vegas Grand Prix on Saturday
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And Hamilton, speaking to FormulaOne.com, has now admitted he had a 'pretty terrible' day in Vegas - with his hopes of winning on Sunday hanging in the balance.
"Pretty terrible but it is what it is," he told Formula1.com.
"It's impressive to see the Williams so high up, yeah just didn't have any grip out there. I don't think the tyres were working the whole session so...yeah not ideal.
"It's been a problem I've had for a long time."
In a separate interview with Sky Sports, Hamilton doubled down that Mercedes' tyres were to blame for his problems in Nevada.
"Yeah it's not that great," he told the broadcaster.
"Yesterday it was feeling a little bit better and we were looking relatively competitive.
"We made some changes overnight, P3 was pretty poor, it kind of put me on the back foot and I was just trying to recover in qualifying which is never the place to do so.
"But yeah, I was struggling with grip, the car just wasn't working for me.
"And it's definitely difficult when you can't even get through Q2, but it is what it is."
Leclerc, who finished in pole position, was delighted at fending off the competition to reign supreme.
“Of course I'm happy, first in Las Vegas, obviously it's an incredible event," he said.
"However, I'm a bit disappointed with my laps in Q3.
"I didn't do a good enough job but it was enough for P1 so that is all we need.
"Now all focus is on tomorrow and putting everything together to focus on the race.
"Normally that is where we lack most performance, so I will hope we can put it all together and win here."
It had looked like Ferrari would secure a double, with Carlos Sainz Jr finishing second.
However, the 29-year-old was slapped with a grid penalty and will now fall to 12th for the main event instead.
Addressing his punishment, he said: "Outstanding job by the whole team [to repair the car yesterday].
"We dominated qualifying together and we worked together yesterday to put together the whole car again, so to get a front-row lock-out I think is incredible.
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F1 news: Charles Leclerc was delighted after finishing in pole position in Q3 at the Las Vegas Grand Prix
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"Obviously, I would love to be on pole, because then I would start 11th instead of 12th but I think we did the maximum that we could today.
"Obviously still disappointed with yesterday, I am not going to lie, and I'm in a very bad mood - but I'm trying not to show it too much, but it is what it is.