Carlos Sainz will launch his British Grand Prix from seventh on tomorrow's grid, having gained a spot at the end of qualifying when Force India's Nico Hulkenberg had his fastest time deleted.
The Toro Rosso driver put in a fairly consistent performance in all three segments of qualifying, concluding the session about half a second from sixth placed man Valtteri Bottas.
The result was more than the Spaniard had hoped for given yesterday's difficult start to the weekend endured by Toro Rosso.
"If you would have told me that yesterday, after ending up over one second from the Force Indias, I wouldn't have believed it," said Sainz.
"Beating a Williams, the two Force Indias and the McLaren which was looking quick is an amazing achievement by the whole team. Yesterday we had to stay on late to discover what was wrong on the car as we definitely didn't have the pace.
"But we turned things around and today we are the first team of the mid-field, which is incredible and an amazing job for the team."
Sainz, who has appeared more incisive in the last few races, hopes his can turn his good qualy into a good race result.
"It's been a good run so far, in the points, and we needed a good qualifying after three comeback races. Now we're starting in a good position for tomorrow, hopefully we can capitalize on it.
"I always try to go forward. Even if we have much faster cars in front of us I will try to do something at the start of the race, but it's going to be very tricky."
QUALIFYING REPORT: Hamilton survives Q3 scare to claim home pole
FEATURE: Home sweet Home - Eric Silbermann on Silverstone
Chris Medland's 2016 British Grand Prix preview
Keep up to date with all the F1 news via Facebook and Twitter
