Sebastian Vettel has stressed that he has no regrets over deciding to stick with an old exhaust system, despite qualifying 11th for the Chinese Grand Prix.
The result means the German two-time world champion failed to make it to the top-10 shootout for the first time in 43 races.
Red Bull teammate Mark Webber opted to go with the new exhaust and ended up qualifying sixth.
Vettel said afterwards: "It's always easy to say this and that now, but I was happy with the car yesterday and that's why I decided to stay as we were.
"I was happy with the laps I had in qualifying. There were no mistakes, but they weren't quick enough. It's as easy as that.
"Obviously I'm not happy. As I said, I was pretty happy with the laps I had in Q2, but they weren't quick enough. We have to start the race from P11 and see what we can do tomorrow. Surely it makes it a bit harder, but not impossible to do a good race."
Mercedes duo Nico Rosberg and Michael Schumacher locked out the front row after Lewis Hamilton was demoted from second to seventh because of a gearbox change.
