Carlos Sainz allowed himself a moment of positivity after setting what he felt was his "best lap" for Williams before recognising that "frustration" will take hold ahead of the Mexico City Grand Prix.
Sainz delivered a superb performance in qualifying at the Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez, finishing seventh at its conclusion, a place ahead of McLaren's Oscar Piastri, with a lap of 1:16.172s, just 0.226s slower than his pole position time last year for Ferrari.
But the Spanish driver will start 12th due to a five-place grid penalty collected from a collision with Mercedes' Kimi Antonelli in last week's United States Grand Prix, a punishment he felt did not fit the crime.
Initially asked about the penalty, speaking to the media, including RacingNews365, Sainz said: "I'm going to focus on the positives because it was one of my best qualifyings of the year, if not my best lap, probably Q3 lap of the year. I'm honestly very happy.
"I'm feeling more and more at home with the car with each session, knowing where to go with set-up, with tyres, putting in a really solid lap to fight it out with a McLaren and the Mercedes for the top seven, and we managed to get it there, so I'm very happy with that.
"And I'm very proud of the team, because we've made huge progress through the year. Even if the pace was there at the beginning, now [we are] putting things together, and it just shows what we can do."
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As to why it was his best lap, he added: "It was just the cleanest, no mistakes, knowing what to do with my steering tools, with my driving, with my racing lines. I just put everything together.
"You know when you cross the line and you say that there's not more than half a 10th in the lap, then you're like, 'Okay, this is a good one'.
"I've done good qualifications [this year] in Miami, Imola, Silverstone, but nowhere near this. I mean, we are only two, three-tenths off my pole of last year with a Williams, so it shows the progress of the team, the progress I'm making. We're getting there."
Asked by RacingNews365 about the frustration of the penalty and dropping five places after such a good performance, he said: "Knowing I need to start from P12, there will be frustration.
"I'm just proud of the job I've done. I just need to get a good start, and then I'll see what the cooling of the car allows me to do. I'm going to be quick, as expected.
"I'm probably the fastest midfield car, as I've been at the last few races on race pace, but here I'm probably be a bit more limited by the track layout, by the cooling of the car.
"We'll see what we can do to recover. I'll do my best, and if the engine or the brakes are running too hot, I'll just back off and bring it home, but I'll push."
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