McLaren's Carlos Sainz has blamed his poor Australian Grand Prix qualifying result on a slow moving Robert Kubica.
During the Spaniard's final run in Q1 – when the track was at its quickest and almost everyone improved on their time – Sainz came across the Williams of Kubica, who had earlier hit the wall and punctured his rear tyre, forcing the McLaren driver to take a cautious approach.
"I’ve been happy with the balance of the car, happy with where we’ve been, happy with my first run," said Sainz. "On my first attempt I did a very strong lap, even if we had an engine issue.
Related: Australian Grand Prix qualifying report and results
"Then we were improving a lot – good enough for top ten, top eight – when suddenly I found Robert in the last sector with a punctured tyre and there was nothing he could have done differently.
"It was just bad timing, the wrong moment at the wrong time. We met each other at Turn 14 and I had to back off and lose three or four-tenths. It is an incredible run of bad luck. We were on a good enough lap to be in the top eight."
Sainz failed to escape Q1 and starts way down in 18th. Meanwhile his team-mate, rookie Lando Norris, progressed through to Q3 and will start eighth.
That's provided Sainz with some hope that McLaren could be in the mix for points on Sunday.
"We will see. I think we are in the mix. It depends on the very last tenth here in the midfield, but it looks like we are in the mix."
