Carlos Sainz’s difficult start to 2022 continued in qualifying at the Australian Grand Prix.

Despite scoring two podiums at the first two events, the Spaniard was a step behind teammate Leclerc and former stablemate Verstappen in Bahrain and Jeddah.

After looking quick and solid in Q1 and Q2, it all went wrong for the Spaniard in Q3.

He looked set to fastest on the first runs in the final segment of qualifying, but a red flag for Fernando Alonso’s accident came out just before he made the line.

Then on the second run, a problem with the starter left him on the back foot and couldn’t prepare the lap as he would have liked.

Replays showed Sainz had a massive moment at turn 10 on his final attempt as he could go only P9. It leaves him behind Ocon, the two Mercedes' and the two McLarens on the grid for tomorrow. 

“We had a problem with the starter, we couldn’t start the car, and went out three minutes later from when we were planning to go out,” a visibly frustrated Sainz told Sky Sports.

“We couldn’t warm up the tyre, it was rushed and I had to do the lap with freezing tyres and it was a horrible lap.

“Very unlucky and everything that went wrong went wrong after I was in the fight for pole position for the whole of qualifying.

Team boss Mattia Binotto tried to console the Spaniard following the session, but Sainz wasn’t too interested in it.

“I think he knows I’m angry because we shouldn’t have these problems with the starter and it was just a disaster,” said the 27-year-old.

“He knows I was in the fight for pole and everything that could go wrong for me, went wrong for me, I’m not going to be happy. Tomorrow is another day.

“I need to sleep; until I go to sleep, I’ll be angry.

“You can imagine the anger I have inside me right now, I don’t need to describe it to you.

“Especially because I didn’t even qualify high up, I qualified ninth, I should have been at least [on the] first row and a good fight for the win tomorrow.”

Before FP3, it was confirmed that the DRS zone on the run to turn 9 had been removed for safety reasons.

Sainz believes that could hamper his charge through the field tomorrow as the midfield is closer to the front runners this weekend.

“We’ll stay aggressive, tomorrow is a day to try and go forward,” Sainz added.

“But at the same time the midfield is tighter this weekend, the midfield is closer to everyone else, we don’t have the advantage we had in Bahrain or other places.

“It’ll be a tougher race, and they removed the fourth DRS zone, which means overtaking now will go back to being extremely difficult and it is the worst possible scenario for me.”