Sergio Perez blamed his disappointing Brazilian Grand Prix qualifying result on Ferrari for the mistake they made in deciding Charles Leclerc's strategy.
The Mexican could only manage ninth place as, like everyone else, he was able to only set one lap time before George Russell crashed. The session was briefly red flagged, but by the time the action began again rain had swept across the circuit.
It meant no-one was going to be able to improve on their times. Only Lewis Hamilton tried to do so, but after one attempted lap it became clear he and everyone else were not going to be able to come close to improving their positions.
Leclerc was the only driver of the 10 in Q3 to be sent out on intermediate tyres, with everyone else on the slicks. It meant the Monegasque was slower than anyone else in that part of the session, and also had an unfortunate impact on Perez.
The Mexican had track position directly behind the Ferrari driver, meaning his flying lap was blocked off by Leclerc. The latter was going as fast as he could on the tyres he had, but he still inadvertently got in the way of the Red Bull racer.
"It was unfortunate, I don't know what Leclerc and Ferrari were doing," said an irritated Perez after the session. "It was very clear he was too slow on the inters on the out-lap and I thought he was going to box.
"It was quite obvious to me he would box and get onto the slick tyres, but then he just stayed in front and I did my lap just behind him and unfortunately that meant I have lost too much.
"You will never know, but I think I could have been a lot higher, top three. Unfortunately we are starting P9 and super-disappointed with the result. We will try hard tomorrow to try to recover and get into the points."
Meanwhile, the story of the session was pole position for Kevin Magnussen, who happened to be at the top of the timesheets when Russell span off the track. Speaking to Sky Sports after the session, Haas team principal Guenther Steiner declared it was the "number one" moment of his entire time in F1.
