Carlos Sainz says he found the conclusion of qualifying in Monaco “difficult to digest” after missing out on a shot at a maiden Formula 1 pole position.
Sainz was a front-runner throughout the qualifying session but a mistake on his first Q3 push run left him fourth.
However he was unable to improve on his second push run due to the session being halted in the wake of Ferrari team-mate Charles Leclerc crashing through Piscine.
“I’m very disappointed to be honest,” said Sainz. “It’s a difficult thing to accept, to digest, it’s not like every day of your life you have the opportunity to put it on pole in Monaco because today I definitely had the pace to do so, but due to the circumstances I didn’t. It’s a very frustrating day for me.”
Sainz stressed he held no ill-feeling towards Leclerc for the mistake but went on to explain why he felt so deflated at the outcome.
“Run one I lost two to three tenths in the last sector compared to my best lap so I knew a 10.2, 10.1 with the track evolution was there,” he said.
“I had a lot of traffic, [Sergio] Perez into Turn 1, and I already lost a tenth, but then I was recovering the lap time and knew I had the lap time in the last sector, but it was out of [Turn] 13 I saw the yellow flag and had to abort.
“I have had the pace to put it on pole, so yeah, I’m starting fourth, so not even close to that.
“I went into quali thinking a pole and the win would be possible and now I’m lining up fourth which is very far away from where I think I could have been.”
