By alley - Apr 2, 2016, 5:01 PM ET

F1: Grosjean says missing Q3 is an advantage

Romain Grosjean has revealed Formula 1's bizarre qualifying rules made him pray he would avoid a place in Q3 for the Bahrain Grand Prix.

With a few minutes left in Q2, Grosjean was poised for another breakthrough with F1 newcomer Haas as he was a remarkable eighth place on the time sheet. But Force India's Nico Hulkenberg was the sole driver to make a last-ditch attempt to progress and posted a time that dropped Grosjean to ninth.

It means Grosjean not only saves a set of tires for the race, but he also has a choice of tire strategy going into the event at Sakhir as the top eight have to start the race on their final Q3 tires, which will be the super-soft.

"That was a good qualifying. We didn't think we would finish that high up," said Grosjean, who finished sixth in Haas's debut in Australia a fortnight ago.

"Of course, the target was to go into Q2, to make an improvement from the first race and not **** up again with the new format, which we did not, so everyone is pleased with that. I think P9 is the best position right now. We could have had another go to get into Q3, but there was no point in terms of tire usage for the race.

"In fact, I was just sat there and I was hoping someone would overtake me, and that I would drop from P8 to P9, which is a bit strange, but that's the way it is with the new tires."

Asked about Hulkenberg's lap, Grosjean added: "I saw he was in sector one, and I was like 'Come on! Come on!' and then sector two was good and I was happy. It's a bit of a shame because we would like to go out in qualifying and play for the best result, but when you know you have a choice of free tires that is what you want.

"I admit that sitting in the car for seven minutes hoping you are eliminated is not the way it should be. You want to see cars going out on track late and the classification changing and getting crazy, and wondering whether a driver will make it or not, but that is clear to everyone."

MIXED SESSION FOR FORCE INDIA

While Hulkenberg reached Q3, his team-mate Sergio Perez was an early casualty in qualifying after the team got caught out by the new format in Q1 and he was left 18th.

"It was a mistake on our side," Force India deputy team principal Bob Fernley said. "We just mistimed getting him in quick enough to turn it around. The new qualifying format is about putting teams under pressure and teams making mistakes. This time it was our turn, we made a mistake. Sergio would have got into Q2 quite comfortably. The time that he put in [after being eliminated] was good enough for that."