Romain Grosjean concerned about his Lotus's lack of pace in German Grand Prix qualifying

The Lotus driver was only 15th in Q2, and he will move further down the grid as one of three drivers taking penalties for gearbox changes. But he said he was more concerned with the performance of his car rather than his grid drop.

"A penalty is bad in any case," Grosjean told reporters in the Hockenheim paddock. "But what worries me today is the lack of performance in the dry in Q1. I didn't feel any grip, so we need to work, to analyse, and to get better for tomorrow.

"It felt like the rain came down on my car before the others. No grip in Q1, it was a very difficult session."

Team-mate Kimi Raikkonen topped Q1 in the dry, which Grosjean feels highlights how much trouble he was in on Saturday afternoon.

"Kimi was fastest, so his car was good," Grosjean added. "But we were almost one second behind, which is far too much. So we will try to understand it.

"We need to find the pace. If we want to come back in any way then we have to get the pace in the car. At the moment we don't have it, so hopefully we find it through the night.

"We have to analyse what was wrong, and get back to the level we know from the last few races in the dry. And then we can overtake people."