Liam Lawson believes RB was a shoo-in for the final stage of Mexican Grand Prix qualifying, had Formula 1 team-mate Yuki Tsunoda not crashed at the close of Q2.
Lawson and Tsunoda were sat on the cusp of progressing into the top-10 shootout, and the Japanese driver had looked particularly competitive throughout all three practice sessions - placing third in both Friday outings and seventh in FP3.
Tsunoda then overcooked it on the brakes at Turn 12 during his final lap of Q2; although his crash into the barrier entering the Foro Sol stadium was somewhat sedate, it nonetheless brought out the red flag.
This froze the Q2 order with both RBs just outside it, having both been on better laps and were attempting to surpass the benchmark 1m17.048s set by Pierre Gasly in 10th.
"It's a shame obviously - I think we had a fast car all weekend," Lawson said. "Obviously, Yuki's been extremely strong in practice. We've been building up and I think we were right there in quali.
"I think the team's worked extremely hard and given us a really fast car this weekend. So I think they deserve to have two cars, if not one, in Q3.
"I was considerably up. So honestly, even just with a normal sector two and three, it should have been enough. But yeah, that's how it is sometimes.
"Unfortunately that's the risk when you run towards the back [of the pack] and if there is a flag that's what happens.
"We did all the right things, we built up and by quali we were honestly on the limit. I feel confident we would have been able to go through."
Lawson nonetheless praised the trail that had been cleared by Tsunoda over the weekend with set-up, stating that his side of the garage had been using his data to help the Kiwi get his head around the Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez.
He added RB was going to have to dig deep to beat Haas in the race, given that the two teams are separated by just two points in their battle for sixth in the constructors' championship.
"It's been perfect; it's good to have a fast team-mate and be able to use his data and that's what we've been doing all weekend," said Lawson.
"It's been useful, I think obviously having extra time this weekend has helped for sure. So yeah, just a shame we didn't get to finish the lap.
"I feel for [the team] because they've worked really hard and this is a weekend where you don't often have two cars that are very quick and capable of Q3.
"Haas have now completely capitalised on that and put both their cars in Q3 and because of what's happened we're now both out.
"We're close to the points obviously we see where they've qualified. But we're close and the long run looks good, so hopefully we can move forward."
