Carlos Sainz Jr will start eighth on the grid for the Australian Grand Prix and felt that the Scuderia Toro Rosso team got better and better as the qualifying session went on.
The Spaniard out-qualified team-mate Daniil Kvyat by just 0.025 seconds at Albert Park but was satisfied to be able to make it through to the top ten shootout, especially with how close the midfield runners have been throughout the weekend so far.
Sainz felt the balance of his STR12 was not as it should been early on but found it improving as the session went on, and believes starting from eighth on the grid gives a good opportunity to score points in the opening race of the season.
“We can call today a good but not perfect day,” said Sainz. “We definitely started the qualifying session very far off from a balance point of view compared to yesterday; we lacked a bit of stability on the car and it wasn’t giving me as much confidence as on Friday.
“I therefore had to go little by little instead of pushing straight away from the beginning… That’s why it wasn’t the perfect start but it ended well.
“Getting into Q3 was difficult, as it was all very tight, but in the end it all came together and I’m definitely satisfied with our result. As a team, we can also be very happy because we got both cars through to Q3.
“To start tomorrow’s race from P8 is a very decent spot and I think it’s going to be a very exciting one… Bring it on!”
