Sainz suggests qualifying tweaks after regretting P5 result

Carlos Sainz was left to loathe the amount of Monaco traffic on his final qualifying laps, which he believes was responsible for his P5 result.

Both Ferrari drivers had been threatening to take the challenge to Red Bull's Max Verstappen ahead of qualifying in Monte Carlo, but neither could prevent the Dutchman from taking his first Pole Position at the principality.

Sainz and teammate Charles Leclerc had progressed into Q3, but their challenge for pole fell away, with the duo finishing in P5 and P3 respectively.

Leclerc endured his own traffic issues in Q3, and received a penalty for blocking Lando Norris in the final part of qualifying, which has demoted him to P6 on the grid, bringing Sainz up to P4.

Speaking after qualifying, Sainz believed his own flying laps had been compromised, and had hoped to be closer to the fight for Pole Position.

"It was a bit of a stressful qually but, to be honest, the pace in the car was there, it was just a bit inconsistent," Sainz told media, including RacingNews365.com.

"On some sets of tyres I had a lot of grip, on others for some reason I was struggling a bit more. But when it counted, the grip and the confidence was there

"In Q3, I did a strong first run and unfortunately, because we went very early to do a second lap, I found three cars on that lap that obviously distracted me and compromised my lap.

"So definitely there was more to come, but we will review what we would have done better because we were in a lot of traffic on that lap."

When asked by RacingNews365.com if he would back any amendments to qualifying, such as a split qualifying session with smaller groups, Sainz responded: "Q1 is too much.

"I think with these wide cars and everything it's too dangerous, and we should find a way to split [qualifying] into [two groups of] 10 cars.

"I'm sure pretty sure that that would help with all the mess that we saw in Q1."