Lewis Hamilton has apologised to his McLaren team following qualifying that has left him staring at a mountainous task in Sunday's French Grand Prix, in which Kimi Raikkonen will start on pole.
Hamilton set the third fastest time at the Circuit de Nevers behind what will be an all-Ferrari front row, with world champion Raikkonen clinching the team's 200th pole in their illustrious Formula One history.
However, Hamilton's 10-place grid penalty following his gaffe in Canada when he ran into the back of Raikkonen in the pit lane at 30mph means he will now start 13th.
In 792 races in F1, only 24 have been won from 11th place or lower, and since the first race at Magny-Cours in 1991 no-one has taken the chequered flag from such a position.
However, Raikkonen finished second in 2005 when starting from 13th, with Mika Hakkinen also runner-up six years earlier from 14th - both driving for McLaren at the time.
The Finns have proven what can be achieved, and now it is up to Hamilton to follow in their footsteps, although he knows he could have done a far better job today.
"Kimi has shown he can do it, but it was a disappointing qualifying for me," assessed the 23-year-old.
"I have to apologise to the team because I didn't do a good job at all.
"On my first and second lap (in Q3) I made the same mistake in both of them, running wide on the exit of turn seven, losing at least three tenths of a second.
"I was pushing, trying to get the best out of the car, and I believe I did in most areas, except that one."
His gaffe in Canada has hung over him, though, paying the price for such an error with what will be his lowest starting position of his 25-race F1 career.
"The penalty doesn't help," reflected Hamilton.
"Coming into the weekend you feel confident, you feel comfortable the team have done absolutely everything they can to get you there and make sure the car is the best.
"But then you arrive and you know you've a 10-place penalty hanging over you.
"Rules are rules I guess. We will take it on the chin and learn from it, do the best job we can and make sure it doesn't happen again."
Now it is up to Hamilton to prove he is a truly talented driver by trying to get into the points on a track where it is tricky to overtake, and it is up to his team to employ a strategy to further propel him up the field.
"Overtaking is going to be tough in the race, but I think we're quick enough to be able to do that, and I am quite confident to be able to do that," added Hamilton.
"There's going to be some hard work to do from back there - although I look forward to it.
"Obviously, when you're here to race and compete for wins, and you know you don't have a chance of doing that, then it puts you on the backfoot.
"But the great thing is I have a very enthusiastic team with a lot of confidence in me and my abilities, and vice versa.
"Whatever problems we have we try to come up with the best solution and move forward, and this weekend it will be tough, but if we can pull out some points then it will be a major bonus."
After failing to score in his last two races - finishing ninth in Monaco after crashing into Force India's Adrian Sutil prior to the incident in Montreal with Hamilton - Raikkonen appears on course for a victory.
"We've had good speed all weekend, the car has been working very well," said the reigning world champion, who trails current leader Robert Kubica by seven points.
"It has been great so far, but tomorrow is when we need to finish and hopefully we can win.
"We have the best starting position and hopefully we can have a strong race. I've the best possible chance from first."
Raikkonen, who has always finished in the points in France, added: "That's good - hopefully it won't be any different tomorrow.
"But as we have seen before anything can happen."
With typical Raikkonen enthusiasm, when informed he had set Ferrari's 200th pole, he replied: "That's very nice for Ferrari, but I am just a small part of it.
"I'm happy to achieve it, and it's good for the team, but nothing really changes."
Massa, who trails Kubica by four points and could become the new leader of an enthralling title race, missed out on pole by just 0.047secs.
Far from feeling downhearted, the Brazilian said: "The car feels very good.
"On this type of track the car works very well, and the team did a very good job, so I'm not disappointed.
"It was a good qualifying, and it's good to start on the front row."
Disastrously for McLaren, Hamilton's team-mate Heikki Kovalainen was later penalised five grid places for impeding Red Bull's Mark Webber on his hot lap, and the Finn will now start 10th.
Fernando Alonso will start third for Renault on home turf, with Toyota's Jarno Trulli fourth, followed by Webber and Red Bull team-mate David Coulthard, whilst Jenson Button is a lowly 16th in his Honda.
Times
01 K. Rдikkцnen Ferrari 1:16.449
02 F. Massa Ferrari 1:16.490
03 L. Hamilton McLaren 1:16.693
04 F. Alonso Renault 1:16.840
05 J. Trulli Toyota 1:16.840
06 H. Kovalainen McLaren 1:16.944
07 R. Kubica BMW 1:17.037
08 M. Webber Red Bull 1:17.233
09 D. Coulthard Red Bull 1:17.426
10 T. Glock Toyota 1:17.596
11 N. Piquet jr. Renault 1:15.770
12 N. Heidfeld BMW 1:15.786
13 S. Vettel Scuderia Toro Rosso 1:15.816
14 S. Bourdais Scuderia Toro Rosso 1:16.045
15 N. Rosberg Williams 1:16.235
16 K. Nakajima Williams 1:16.243
17 J. Button Honda 1:16.306
18 R. Barrichello Honda 1:16.330
19 G. Fisichella Force India F1 1:16.971
20 A. Sutil Force India F1 1:17.053
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