Hamilton - who crashed in FP3 - got out of Q1 at the last minute with his final run, and the same thing happened as he made it out of Q2 with his last lap.
In the final segment he earned sixth on the grid, with the potential to move up a place if third-placed Charles Leclerc receives a penalty for impeding.
Hamilton also acknowledged that the upgrades Mercedes introduced to this weekend have already proved to be a benefit, but a set-up change to help with his final sector backfired on him in Q3.
“I didn't try to leave it late, it's just how it turned out!,” he said when asked about his eventful session by Autosport.
“Firstly, the team did a really great job in bringing these upgrades - you could really feel it straightaway, particularly at the front of the car.
“Our middle sector has been where we're losing out all this weekend so far, so I made a change into qualifying, which made it harder for us in the last sector. So you can't always have your cake and eat it.”
Asked if he’d wanted to change the car against the advice of his engineers, he said: “Yeah, so we'd been trying something through the weekend, and there was some uncertainty with it.
“We went back halfway on the other car, but I went the full way on mine. I was like, 'We should take it off', and they were like, 'No, no, we should keep it, we should keep it'.
Source: Autosport