Nico Rosberg had no explanation for his lack of pace in Hungary as he was beaten to pole position by over half a second by Mercedes team-mate Lewis Hamilton.
Rosberg was struggling with the balance of his car throughout qualifying and visibly suffering from understeer in his W06. By contrast Hamilton was in supreme form and ended easing to pole position, while Rosberg finished just two tenths ahead of Sebastian Vettel in third.
"I don't have an explanation," Rosberg said. "Qualifying went pretty much straight to plan, everything, just didn't find the pace. It's been up and down all weekend for some unexplained reasons, so just need to look into it tonight. Definitely not happy with the way it went today."
Rosberg admits his set-up is more appropriate for the race and he is refusing to write off his chances from second on the grid.
"I don't think I saved a set of soft tyres, not this time round. But let's see, I'm a bit unsure, it was a bit all over the place, the qualifying. But strategy, there's going to be some opportunities definitely, or some kind of strategy - let's see. We're going to go into that tomorrow morning, strategy is discussed tomorrow morning. Car-wise, if anything my balance is for the race, which is not what I wanted but is how it's gone!"