Carlos Sainz: "I’m convinced we can move forward"

The Spaniard lines up 9th for the Australian Grand Prix and behind his teammate.

Renault got 2018 underway with a strong performance in qualifying with both cars making it into Q3 but Carlos Sainz says he had hoped to be "a little bit higher than this".

8th and 9th for Nico Hulkenberg and Sainz respectively put them as the fifth fastest team in qualifying behind Haas who look to have moved up the pecking order over the winter.

Hulkenberg will start 7th however after Daniel Ricciardo's grid penalty will put him between the two Renault teammates on Sunday's grid. Sainz still believes that despite a personally disappointing qualifying, there is a good result on the table in tomorrow's race.

“We expected both cars to be in the top ten and we achieved this today, which confirms the good progress of the whole team,” he said.

“I had hoped to be a little bit higher than this, however, the lap time didn’t come. I’ll take a good look at that today with my engineers.”

Sainz hopes to make progress from his grid slot on Sunday and secure a fourth consecutive points finish in Australia, and he feels that they can take the fight to their main rivals.

“For tomorrow, I’m convinced we can move forward. It’s going to be tight but we have a good car and a good chance to battle with the cars around us.

“I’m confident we can put together a competitive race!”