Daniil Kvyat cannot explain lack of "trust' in his Red Bull F1 car

Kvyat was the first driver eliminated in Q2, finishing the session a second slower than Red Bull team-mate Daniel Ricciardo, who will start fifth at Sakhir, in 15th.

The result compounded Kvyat's woes at the start of this season after failing to make it out of Q1 in Australia, and then not even starting the race due to an electrical failure as the grid formed.

A despondent Kvyat said: "We just didn't have pace, so it's something we have to analyse on our side of the garage because we are bit far off.

"It's not really clear why, but at the moment we are missing something. I did everything I could, but it wasn't enough.

"We are a team so we have to work together and understand where the laptime difference is [to Ricciardo] because it's quite huge.

"It's a bit odd, but there's nothing I can really say. I don't really know the answer myself. There's nothing wrong with the car, nothing I've felt. Everything is normal."

Suggested to Kvyat it could be a tyre problem, he added: "There is something going on with the tyres, and it looks like some other teams have a variation in the preparation of the tyres.

"It may be that, but I wouldn't say all the blame is there. I would say maybe there is something not completely correct, but there is just no pace at this stage."

Asked by Autosport as to his gut instinct, he replied: "There is not 100 per cent trust in the car. I'm lacking a bit of confidence.

"I could say that, but on the other hand I was completely happy with FP1, FP2 and FP3. Everything was looking so great.

"It was vice versa on the other side of the garage, but then when it comes to the most important part of qualifying, it switched completely the other way around.

"I cannot be happy with that. We have lost something.

"I probably didn't have the cleanest lap of my career, but it's not as if I forgot how to drive the car between sessions."

Ricciardo, meanwhile, was naturally delighted with his performance.

"It was one of the good ones. The whole session went well," he said.

"It's weird getting excited about a fifth, but it's definitely up there. Fifth is the best we could have done.

"Up until quali I wasn't that happy. I didn't expect to have the quali I had.

"I didn't go in with negative thoughts, but I thought if we could scrape into Q3 then that would be awesome, so to get into Q3 was sweet, and to be fifth, the best I could aim for, I was really happy."