McLaren F1 Team‘s Carlos Sainz Jr. has bemoaned his poor qualifying performance ahead of the Australian Grand Prix at Albert Park this weekend.
The Spaniard only managed to qualify in eighteenth place, after setting a 1:23.084 on the soft tyre.
He said that he was simply in the wrong place at the wrong time, running behind the stricken Williams Racing car of Robert Kubica, who had hit the wall and suffered a puncture towards the end of the session.
“I had unbelievable bad luck out there today. I was on a very good lap that would have got us into the top 10. Then I came across the Williams of Robert Kubica with a puncture in the last sector in the middle of the track at Turn 14, but I couldn’t avoid him and I dropped four tenths,” said Sainz.
“It is what it is – I was in the wrong place at the wrong time – so it’s a shame.”
Sainz said he believed it would have been possible to progress into Q2, but has now instead turned his focus to the race, confident in the pace the car showed in qualifying.
“We definitely had the pace to get through to Q2. We had a margin to be even stronger in Q2, but it was all out of our control.
“Hopefully tomorrow our pace will be good for the race, and it’s positive to see the potential the car showed today. We know that qualifying’s important here as it’s a difficult track to pass on, so 18th is a disappointing result.
“But, we need to stay positive and let’s see what we can do tomorrow.”
