After being demoted to Toro Rosso four races into the season, Kvyat has scored just two points to teammate Carlos Sainz's 26.

And qualifying at the Hockenheim delivered to latest blow to the Russian's confidence, Kvyat getting eliminated in Q1 while Sainz progressed to Q2.

"I had a s*** session. They weren't good laps," Kvyat said after qualifying.

"I had a very bad lap with many mistakes. I was expecting to be out of Q1.

"I don't feel great. It is not a good period for me. It seems like it is never-ending. I am trying every weekend so much but nothing is working so far, so it needs to be more than that.

"I am having the most pleasant time for sure, it is not easy. But it is not an excuse. Everyone has hard times and if you're doing nothing about it, you just die.

"I don't know what I need. I don't know. I just need the feeling in the car to be much better. I cannot remember the last time I had a good feeling with any car, so I don't know what is going on.

"It seems like my window of working is very narrow. We are working on expanding on it but it is not so easy to show."

Kvyat also elaborated that his lack of pace in qualifying was particularly disheartening after he had shown reasonable speed in practice.

"Yesterday it seemed like it could be [our race], we found some good things yesterday, but I am not sure if it has played a bit against us and made us a bit too relaxed today, I don't know," he said.

"But when it came to qualifying, it didn't seem a very good feeling or connection with the car, and when I don't have connection with the car, it is hard."

Additional reporting by Jonathan Noble