The Mexican has finished only one race so far this year in a campaign that has been affected by a spate of mechanical troubles. At Barcelona on Friday, his afternoon running was curtailed again by an electronic issues.

Speaking after the session, he said that the onus was now on the team to turn the corner on sorting the problems out – but it was clear he was not happy with the way things were playing out.

"I honestly put myself aside from this because it's not really my responsibility to fix the car," he said. "The team has to get on top of this.

"I am here to drive, to drive as fast as possible and it is what I really love doing. It's not nice because it's making me look very bad to the outside as a driver, personally.

"All the f*****g great job I'm doing on the inside is not really perceived by the outside. So it's a little bit frustrating on that side, and also showing my pace.

"I've been quick in everything. I just hope to get the car that I deserve in order to put the results on the paper."

Tricky wind

Although Gutierrez was not as unhappy with the balance of his car as teammate Romain Grosjean, he said things had not been ideal during the day.

But there had been hints of progress prior to the mechanical problem he suffered.

"Yeah, FP1 the feeling was not really great," he said. "The main dominating factor was the tyres, so a lot of snaps and it was quite tricky to drive, even though the conditions were really nice. It was sunny, no wind, I was expecting to have a good feeling but it wasn't the case.

"Then when we switched to practice two the wind came and made it tricky. The feeling on the medium tyre was pretty bad, maybe a bit worse than practice one.

"On the soft tyre on the first three corners I was able to do - because I didn't complete more than that - it felt more normal. The tyres were working better, so it was a wonderful feeling coming in to Turn 1, Turn 2 and Turn 3, so I keep myself with that one."