Russian F1 driver Vitaly Petrov believes the new Formula 1 rules make taking part in the qualifying session futile.

­The statement comes after Petrov’s Lotus Renault teammate, Nick Heidfeld, who missed qualifying and started from last place on the grid, finished the Sunday’s Spanish grand Prix ahead of him.  

“It is hard say to what went wrong in this race. We must analyze what happened. It appears qualification has little meaning now. Here’s some simple arithmetic: one lap in qualification means you waste your tires on three laps in the race. So when you go to the start having already used tires, you lose lots of time on every lap,” Petrov told Rossiya 2 channel.

According to F1 rules, the driver has to use the same set of tires in the race as in the qualification.

Heidfeld won 16 places during the race in Barcelona to see the checkered flag in eighth, with the Russian ending the race in 11th, with no points in the bag.   

“Nick wasn’t involved in the fight for spots on the grid on Saturday and therefore maintained three sets of new tires. Starting from 24th position, he still had the advantage. If you complete just one fast lap in qualifying, you waste your tires on three laps (the first one is when you leave the pits; the second is actually the fast lap and the third one is when you return to the pits),” the 26-year-old explained.

Petrov said that he is very disappointed with the result, for which he has no explanation as there were no car problems.

“At the start, I managed to win one position and I remained in fifth until the first wave of pit stops. It all looked pretty good, but then I had, virtually, no chance to stay in the top ten,” he said.

The first ever Russian in Formula 1, Vitaly Petrov currently sits ninth in the Drivers’ Championship, with 21 points after five events.