Michael Schumacher slipped to his worst qualifying position in four races when a vibration put him out in Q2 in Korea.
The seven-time World Champ had looked strong in Saturday's dry practice session, setting the sixth fastest time ahead of qualifying.
The German easily made it into Q2, sixth fastest in the opening qualifying segment and had hoped to secure his fourth successive top ten grid slot. But it was not to be.
Schumacher went out for his one and only run in Q2 only to find he was picking up a bad vibration. And although the German set the ninth fastest lap time, when the session ended he was outside the top ten in 12th place.
"To start with the positives of today's qualifying, I have saved two fresh sets of option tyres which is always helpful," said Schumacher.
"On the other hand, it was obviously a pity what happened.
"Everything went normally in Q1, and from what you can expect of the tyres under normal circumstances, it was absolutely justified to go for just one run in Q2.
"But unfortunately I could feel that something was not right when leaving the pits as I had vibrations straight away. All that was left for us to do was hope that the gap would be big enough to remain in the top ten but that turned out not to be the case.
"We will now have a close look into what exactly happened and fully concentrate on trying to make up some positions in the race tomorrow."
Team boss Ross Brawn is adamant his driver can do just that come Sunday's grand prix as "the pace did not reflect what the car was capable of."
He added: "Michael's pace on the prime in Q1 was very good, then as he went out on the options in Q2, he complained of a vibration.
"We debated whether to change tyres, but decided to stay out and try for the lap time. In the end there wasn't enough time to complete another run.
"Even so, Michael was just one tenth away from Q3, and he will have opportunities tomorrow."
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