Bahrain GP: Kvyat blames Red Bull-Renault energy issues for Q1 exit

The Russian failed to get through the first segment of qualifying, meaning he will line-up 17th on the grid only ahead of the Manor/Marussia cars and Jenson Button - whose McLaren broke down before he could complete a lap.

Kvyat's team-mate Daniel Ricciardo qualified seventh, and the Toro Rosso graduate said that he was struck by problems that did not affect the team's lead car.

"We can roughly understand what the problem was," Kvyat told reporters after qualifying.

"We think that there were a few energy issues in qualifying.

"But we need to analyse them deeper, understand what provoked them, and how it affected the performance.

"Let's wait and see where the real issue was. It's like a snowball - one thing leads to another."

Kvyat believes that the problems were significant enough to mean that it did not matter how well he drove in qualifying because he could not affect his result.

"These things keep striking in qualifying and I can't really deliver a proper lap," he said.

"We understand these things shouldn't happen, then once we tidy them up I think we will do OK.

"I think my lap was fine enough and more or less all I could do.

"If everything was together of course I wasn't 1.2 seconds off my team-mate - Daniel doesn't have the same issues.

"He extracted everything from the car, but he had a normal run, and I didn't."

RICCIARDO EYES WILLIAMS FIGHT

Ricciardo was pretty pleased with his performance, and reckoned that there was a chance of being able to challenge Williams in the race.

"It will take everything we have got," he said. "But if we use everything we have got, that is the start, strategy, and tyre management.

"If we do a 10/10 race from our side, which I feel we are yet to do this season and I feel we are ready for it, then we can challenge them. It is realistic."