Max Verstappen says qualifying in fifth place for the 2016 F1 season opener in Australia, a career best, is a "great achievement".
The Dutch driver easily made it through to the final session of the new elimination-style qualifying format and was the fourth driver to drop out in Q3.
"It was a good qualifying session, especially after FP3, where I was struggling a bit with the car," he said. "We managed to turn it around and to be P5 – a career best – here in Melbourne is a great achievement by the whole team.
"If I’m honest, I’m a bit surprised with the result – I thought Q3 was maybe possible, but to be here in P5 is definitely a better result than we expected.
"Over the winter the team did a great job and now we need to enjoy this moment and get ready for tomorrow’s race. I’m definitely looking forward to it."
His team-mate Carlos Sainz Jr also enjoyed a positive qualifying and will start seventh: "I’m pleased with my starting position and even though in Q3 I wasn’t able to repeat a strong lap like I did in Q2, a P7 is a good starting point for tomorrow’s race.
"The car feels really good and the hard work we’ve done over the winter is starting to pay off. It was quite a hectic and tricky session for us.
"We’ve got good pace and our objective tomorrow will be to hopefully go forward and score as many points as possible. We need to aim for that top seven, and I’m certainly looking forward to that challenge, it will be a fun race."
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