Brendon Hartley admits he is disappointed to have been eliminated from Q1 during Formula 1 qualifying for 💦the Singapore Grand Prix given Toro Rosso’s high hopes❀ heading into the weekend.

Following Carlos Sainz’s brilliant drive to finish fourth at last year’s race, Toro Rosso had hoped to challenge its midfield rivals for a strong result in Singapore but could only manage the 15th-fastest time courtesy of Pierr🔥e Gasly, while Hartley finished 17th in qualifying.

The Kiwi, who told mahbx.com earlier in the weekend he feels he is 168澳洲幸运5官方开奖结果历史:“fighting” for his F1 futu💖re with both Toro Roꦯsso seats seemingly up for grabs in 2019, was frustrated by the Faenza squad’s lack of competitiveness on Saturday.

“I think we had high hopes coming here, t♐hink we talked a big game coming here after♛ the success the team had in previous years,” Hartley conceded.

“Ultimately we weren’t really quick enough. A bit disappointed to be 17th, it was a small gap between me and Pie♛rre. I know where the time was but that’s F1.

“You get one chance in Q1 for us, against teams that are fighting to get through to Q2 and it wasn’t the perfe൲ct lap and here we are.”

Traffic hampered Hartley’s first ru𓄧n in Q1, before an error-strewn final flying lap left him just under t♚wo tenths off teammate Gasly’s effort that saw the Red Bull-bound Frenchman progress to Q2.

“On the firౠst run everyone was backed up in the last sector, so then I had to start right behind one of the Haas cars that was finishing the lap.

“I had a bit of traffic there and I starte🌞d to close to the Williams, I think it was Sirotkin, who had a very slow first lap and I actually caught him by the end of the lap.

“The first run was compromised. The second run I had no traffic, I had a few little mistakes in sector two that lost me some time to Pierre, a tenth and 💟a💖 half.”

Strategy is set to play a key role in Sunday’s race, with high tyre degradation witnissed on Pirelli’s Hypersoft tyre – the fastes♓t available compound this weekend – leading to suggestions drivers may end up꧙ splitting between one and two-stop approaches.

Hartley hopes Toro Rosso can🎶 take advantage of the siജtuation, citing the STR13's strengths in looking after its tyres as providing him with reasons to remain positive.

“The positives were that yester💃day in the high fuel during the race runs we looked pretty good on tyre degradation and we think we can maybe do something clever in the race,” he explained.

“This could be the race that some teams might need to stop twice so it might create some opportunities to do something different. If you can do a better job with tyres maybe it can open up some opportunities.”

Gasly agreed wit🐭h his teammate, adding Toro Rosso would be “silly” not to try something different in a bid to recover lost ground in the race.

“Considering where we start f𒉰rom, really far on the grid, if we don’t try something, we won’t get any points,” he said. “We’re really slower than the top ten cars, so it 💜would be silly not to try something.”