Robert Kubica said he felt ill-prepared in Abu Dhabi qualifying having missed most of Friday's second practice session.
An engine failure had sidelined the Pole 13 laps into practice two, and although he had trouble-free runs in the other two sessions, it was only the second one that mirrored the very different temperatures of the dusk timeslot that qualifying and the race both have.
He still went on to qualify seventh, but felt a better result would have been possible if he had got a feeling of the car's handling at night fall yesterday.
"Unfortunately I missed yesterday's second free practice session," said Kubica.
"As a result I had no experience of the track conditions at this time of day.
"The conditions were completely different compared to the third free practice session.
"The lower temperatures had quite a big effect on the car's balance.
"In the end qualifying in seventh is quite okay and I am optimistic that we can fight for points tomorrow."
Kubica will start one place ahead of his team-mate Nick Heidfeld.
"I think my eighth position is alright," said the German.
"On the last lap there was a small chance to improve, but I had traffic with Mark Webber in front of me, and anyway there is no guarantee this lap would have been faster."
He now hopes the team can go out on a high as its parent company waves goodbye to Formula 1 and the staff wait to see if new owner Qadbak can get a 2010 entry.
"For our last race tomorrow I hope for all of us we can achieve a good result with points for both cars," said Heidfeld.