Carlos Sainz no longer "puzzled" by previous McLaren performances

Carlos Sainz says he is no longer "puzzled" by previous McLaren performances after learning "a few interesting bits" during his four races with the British team.

The Spaniard was confused at how McLaren managed to improve on Sunday's compared to their speed during qualifying while he was driving for Renault last season. Though Sainz has been the victim to few unlucky occurrences, his time at McLaren has been positive so far.

The Woking based team seem to be moving back up the grid, and Sainz agrees.

"Sometimes last year when I was racing for Renault I was a bit puzzled by McLaren being half a second away in qualifying and suddenly in the race being always a pain for us," Sainz told Autosport.

"This year, qualifying has improved and still we have strong race pace. So, I kind of expected the race pace to be good, and now I understand why last year the car was a bit better in the race than in qualifying. I've tested it, I know how it feels and I know more or less what's going on. There's a few interesting bits there that I've learned."

Sainz claims he expected McLaren to be pushing for Q3s after their performance during pre-season testing in Barcelona. Unlike last year, McLaren is targetting points finish in every race which will help boost their midfield profile.

"So when I went to Australia, I already knew the car could potentially be in Q3, potentially in the points. So I set my targets before Australia because I knew more or less where we could be," Sainz added.

"Because of that, I think points finishes we can target in pretty much every race, even in races like China where we didn't qualify well."