Fernando Alonso conceded Renault’s R29 simply wasn’t fast enough to get out of Q1 at Abu Dhabi after his hopes of enjoying a successful swansong to his career at the team all but evaporated on Saturday.
The Enstone-based squad had languished towards the foot of the order throughout the three practice sessions at the new Yas Marina circuit, but retained hope of at least finding enough speed in qualifying to get Alonso into the second stage.
But even the double world champion couldn’t manage to muster a more competitive showing from the R29 and failed to make the cut by a clear 0.164s margin, marking the first time he has ever failed to make Q2 since the current qualifying format was introduced at the start of the 2006 season.
Alonso was naturally frustrated to have fallen at the first hurdle, but admitted there was little else he could have done.
He has now vowed to give it is all in his last race for the team to try and at least salvage a stronger finish.
"It was disappointing for us to be out after Q1 as obviously I would have liked to qualify higher up the grid,” said the Ferrari-bound star.
“Although the team have done their best to prepare the car, it just wasn't quick enough to set a better time this afternoon.
“Tomorrow I will do all I can to get the best result possible in my last race with Renault."
Romain Grosjean got within a respectable 0.3s of his team leader’s best time, but Renault’s lack of competitiveness meant this was only good enough for a place on the back row.
The French rookie, who followed up two spins in final practice with another in Q1, is now just hoping to complete a trouble-free race.
"It was a difficult qualifying session today,” he said after qualifying 19th.
“We were missing performance but we still hoped to make it through to at least into Q2.
“We have done as much as we could, but sadly we were out in Q1. For tomorrow, it's important not to make any mistakes and to finish as high as possible."
Acting team principal Bob Bell admitted the double Q1 elimination hadn’t come as a great shock but retains hope that, aided by strong strategies, race day can prove to be a better experience.
"Today's qualifying session was disappointing,” he said.
“We haven't been competitive this weekend so the qualifying result didn't come as a great surprise to us, although we did think that we might get Fernando into Q2 so it was even more disappointing not to achieve that.
“However, we remain confident for the race and we will exploit any opportunity that might come way. We will prepare ourselves as much as we can for the race and will see what it brings."