Carlos Sainz admits 'anger' at 'disaster' Australian Grand Prix qualifying

Whilst Charles Leclerc sealed pole position for Ferrari in qualifying for the Australian Grand Prix, his team-mate Carlos Sainz was experiencing a far different set of emotions.

Leclerc will no doubt be delighted that he’s set to start from P1 tomorrow but Sainz, meanwhile, could only post the ninth-fastest time after a Q3 session that was pitted with misfortune.

On his first run in the final session, he was set to post a really competitive time but a red flag, caused by Fernando Alonso’s hydraulics issue sending him into the wall, deleted his time just metres from the line.

By the time we’d got back underway, Sainz then had an issue with the starter on his Ferrari, ruining his usual preparation plans and leaving him trying to post a time on undercooked tyres, meaning he was well off of the pace.

Indeed, speaking to Sky after the session he could not hide his pure frustration at what he described a ‘disaster’ of a Q3:

“With the lap at the end we had a problem with the starter, we couldn’t start the car and we went out three minutes later than when we were planning to go out so I couldn’t prepare the tyre or warm the tyre, everything was rushed and I had to do the lap with freezing tyres.

“It was incredibly unlucky and everything that could have gone wrong for me did, especially because I was in the fight for pole position.

“[Mattia Binotto] knows I’m angry because we should not have these problems with the starter and it was just a disaster because he knows that I was in the fight for pole. I’m not going to be happy at all if anybody tells me to be happy but tomorrow is another day and we’ll try and come back.

“I’ll have a good night’s sleep and let’s see, but until I go to sleep I will be angry.”

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