Sainz "angry" to be starting ninth after Australian GP Q3 "disaster"

While team-mate Charles Leclerc claimed his second pole position of the 2022 season after beating Red Bull's Max Verstappen, Sainz will start on the fifth row after a "disaster" in Q3.

The Spaniard was just approaching the end of his first flying lap when red flags caused by Fernando Alonso's Turn 11 shunt meant he was unable to log a banker lap.

Problems with firing up his F1-75 car after the stoppage then meant Sainz wasn't able to complete the optimal two slow laps to bring the soft tyres into their ideal operating window, leaving him to struggle on "freezing cold tyres" for his sole flyer.

Having felt he was "in the fight for pole the whole weekend", Sainz cut a frustrated figure in the paddock after the session, telling Sky Sports F1 that "everything that could have gone wrong for me went wrong".

"I'm angry because we shouldn't have these problems with the starter," he said. "It was just a disaster."

Asked to explain his problems by Autosport, Sainz said: "In Q3 we had the red flag when I was on a good lap, we couldn't put a banker in.

"And then for the second Q3 lap we are investigating what happened because the engine didn't start, so I went out three minutes late in a run plan.

"We need two laps to get the tyres to work and I couldn't do the two laps so I started the lap with freezing cold tyres and from there on the lap on cold tyres is just crappy. I nearly crashed twice and you cannot put a lap together.

Carlos Sainz Jr., Ferrari F1-75

Photo by: Carl Bingham / Motorsport Images

"Tremendously unfortunate having to have these two issues in the two Q3 laps. You can imagine the anger I have inside me right now.

"Especially because I didn't qualify high up, I qualified P9, it should have been at least first row and a good fight for the win tomorrow."

Sainz acknowledged that the decision to remove the Albert Park Circuit's fourth DRS zone was the "worst possible scenario for me" and will make his recovery efforts much more difficult on a weekend where the midfield cluster appears tightly-bunched.

"We'll stay aggressive, tomorrow is a day to try and go forward for sure," he added.

"But at the same time, the midfield is tighter this weekend, the midfield is closer to everyone else and we don't have the pace advantage that we had in Bahrain or in other places so it's going to be a tough race moving forward."