The Australian showed promising pace through practice, gradually building up to all but match team-mate Pierre Gasly in Free Practice 3.
That transferred into a good early lap in qualifying, but traffic and a compromised build lap ultimately meant he fell short at the end of Qualifying 1 as he qualified 20th.
“The first run was solid,” Doohan explained.
“I felt I could take some nice steps forward with the car balance, but also for myself.
“I was decently happy [with the] second. I think we were a little bit on the back foot just exiting the pit lane, a very tricky situation, coming to a halt.
“So from that point, tyre temps, everything was a little bit down. [I was] pushing like a maniac really to just make the flag in the end, and a big back up when we got to Sector 3.
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“Trying to maintain the gap to [Lance] Stroll and then a few Mercedes came past…
“It’s very hard to ask the car to perform as you want when you’re well down on tyre temperatures and [not] having the car in the window.
“It’s a bit unfortunate, I’m definitely disappointed with the end result, but it’s not the last time that will happen.”
Though he exited qualifying at the end of the first segment, Doohan focused the positives as he works to bed himself into his role as an F1 race driver.
“I’m grateful for the experience,” he said.
“Me and the team will go back, debrief on how we can manage these situations better – them and also on me – to ensure that when we are faced with this circumstance again, we’re in a better position.”
It’s a wise mentality from the young Australian, who was encouraged to take a progressive approach to the weekend.
To date, that advice has been heeded as he has worked up to the limit without stepping over it.
The pace has been there too, as demonstrated in Free Practice 3, with his qualifying tribulations a by-product of inexperience, an inescapable reality of being a rookie.
“FP3 already felt a lot more comfortable,” he admitted.
“Just switch changes, knowing what I’m doing throughout the lap, not having to maybe look down on my dash; just things being a little bit more second nature helps quite a lot.
“I was feeling quite comfortable going into qualifying, but in this world, it doesn’t always play out how you hope.
“So we just take all the positives forward, learn from the negatives, and enjoy tomorrow.
“For me, just going to be learning,” he added of his approach to the race.
“My first lap, race start, my first race pit stop, so a lot to obviously learn about and just make sure that we start next year on the right foot.”
Doohan will start the race 17th once penalties to others are applied.
The Abu Dhabi Grand Prix begins at 17:00 local time on Sunday (midnight AEDT).
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