Doohan recorded only the 19th best time to become one of the five drivers eliminated from the opening phase of Qualifying for the Japanese Grand Prix.
The Australian had endured an interrupted start to the weekend after sitting out the opening hour as Ryo Hirakawa completed the session.
He stepped into the car for Free Practice 2 only to crash after four laps.
That prompted an overnight rebuild from the team before two red flags in Free Practice 3 also made for an interrupted session, leaving the 22-year-old desperately short on laps around a circuit that requires commitment and confidence.
“Not the easiest to bounce back into P3,” Doohan said of his day.
“To be honest, yesterday I was quite in a good way and just rebuilding over P3, taking it easy.
“But we only got three laps then with both red flags, so not much time to also tune the car and also myself.
“Just unfortunate that I have to then take such big steps to get back to it.
“It’s a place, around here, similar to a street track where P1, P2, P3, you keep taking steps forward and you build up your stones and then you start from there.
“I was sort of having to jump a bit more.
“In the end of Q1, I think the potential maybe of Q2 was on the cards, which would have been, to be honest, a great effort.
“I just had to take big steps forward and my final lap, I just asked a but too much through Turn 14, was going to run wide, so I had to get out of it.
“If I didn’t do that, I’d still be here speaking with you now, but I had to give it a go.”
His Turn 14 mistake was a result of inexperience, brought about by his interrupted build-up to the qualifying hour.
By being short on laps, Doohan was both down on confidence after his Friday crash and comfort within the car given the compressed time available to tune it to his liking.
Both proved factors in his early qualifying exit.
“It’s more, as well my confidence but also the fact that just getting the car to my liking as well for those highspeed corners can contribute to it,” Doohan said of the challenge of building into the session.
“I look back now, I think maybe I could have done a point-five, point-six – still a few tenths away from Pierre [Gasly].
“I can probably guarantee that’s a bit into Turn 2, maybe a bit all into these entries in the highspeed corners, which isn’t surprising.”
While Doohan was 19th in Qualifying, Gasly recorded the 11th-best time of the session.
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