Front-row starter Carlos Sainz still in “a lot of discomfort” after surgery

Carlos Sainz has admitted he is still experiencing “a lot of discomfort and weird feelings” on his return to the cockpit of his Ferrari F1 car at the Australian Grand Prix.

The Spaniard was forced to sit out of the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix just two weeks ago due to needing immediate surgery to remove his appendix, but has been able to return to action in Melbourne.

Sainz turned in an impressive performance in qualifying to get within 0.270 seconds of Red Bull’s Max Verstappen as he claimed a spot on the front row and outpaced Ferrari teammate Charles Leclerc.

"It's been a tough couple of weeks, a lot of days in bed waiting to see if I could make it to this weekend," Sainz said after qualifying.

"To put it on the front row after leading through qualifying, I was almost not believing it, especially after how tough it's been.

"I'm very happy to be challenging the Red Bulls this weekend. I was a bit rusty at the beginning yesterday but then I got up to speed and I could finally find the pace and feeling good with a car.

"I'm not gonna lie. I'm not in my most comfortable state when I'm driving out there, but I can get it done.

"A lot of discomfort and weird feelings but no pain, so it allows me to push for a flat out.”

Although he is not experiencing any pain while driving, Sainz conceded he is not yet “100 percent” comfortable behind the wheel.

“I think it's impossible to feel 100% after spending seven to 10 days in bed like I did just trying to recover,” he explained.

“But the good thing, you know, is that I had no pain. I just have the discomfort, and obviously everything feels a bit weird inside, but I can push. Especially today, I could push flat out.

“Yesterday, I took it easy at the beginning, Had to do some tweaks to the seat, to the belts, to the brake pedal. But today, you know, when the adrenaline came up in quali and I could close the visor and go for it, I could go for it, which is a good thing.

“Hopefully tomorrow I still do another step of recovery, putting a lot of emphasis on physiotherapy and recovery, you know, these days. All of it is focused around it and hopefully tomorrow I can be OK.”

Asked if he thinks he can beat Verstappen in the grand prix, Sainz replied: “I think nowadays you need to be 100% to beat Max and today I wasn't. And probably due to that, I missed out on pole.

“I think today if I would have done 100% good job, pole position could have been possible. I need to be 100% to beat Max. I will give it my absolute everything to do it because it's been a while since Singapore, and he's been on that top step since.

“But yeah, if there's one weekend where we have a good pace, it's this one. Tricky track to overtake, tricky on tyres. So who knows? I think we might have a chance.”