Sainz: Nico has little tricks that make him bloody fast

The Spaniard said in an interview, "For sure, Nico is very strong in qualifying. I think he has always been. Probably with this car even more. He understands it very well."

"He is a bloody fast guy, and on top of that he is very experienced. You can see it, all the time he is on track, he is on it."

"You could already see it when I arrived in the team last year, he has these little tricks, little things that make him go very, very fast in qualifying, which I'm still discovering and adapting.

"In Melbourne, I was half a second clear of him in qualifying in Q2. The other two races, I was bit behind, so I don't think there's anything to worry about."

Sainz, who joined Renault on loan from Toro Rosso for the final four races of last year, pointed out, "He also has a year of experience with the car. That is helping him to arrive [at tracks] and have the race of last year to know how the car reacted to changes, to driving style, etc."

"I'm still in my fourth year, but still learning a lot of stuff from the car at the same time. And I'm catching up little by little. It's a 21-race year. We have done three. In one of them, I have been the faster car. So I am not worried at all."

After three races, Sainz has yet to outqualify Hulkenberg and has finished behind the German on all three occasions.

Sainz continued, "I think in Australia I was the faster car, Bahrain I was quite slow to be honest. And we are still trying to understand it. With the back-to-back races, it was difficult. In China, I was just a couple of tenths away in quali, and in the race that multiplied itself by track position."

"In qualifying especially, I feel we are very good. In every race, with the degradation we have, there's things to understand, because somehow we are not as competitive in the race as we are in qualifying," added the Spaniard.