Ferrari's Carlos Sainz goes from hospital bed to front row in Formula ...

Ferrari's Carlos Sainz is set to take his place on the front row beside pole-sitter Max Verstappen in Sunday's Australian Grand Prix, marking a remarkable return to the track a mere fortnight after undergoing surgery for appendicitis.

The resilient Spaniard, who sat out the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix due to his medical condition, made a determined comeback to his racing seat at Albert Park this week, having had no opportunity for training since the operation.

Despite not being at peak fitness, Sainz showcased his prowess in Melbourne, narrowly missing out on pole position due to a relatively slower final sector on his last flying lap.

"I’m not going to lie, I'm not in my most comfortable state when I’m driving out there but I can get it done," Sainz candidly told reporters.

"And as far as I can get it done without pain... obviously (there is) a lot of discomfort and weird feelings, but no pain, so it allows me to push flat-out."

Sainz, the sole non-Red Bull driver to secure a victory in 2023 when he triumphed at Singapore, fell just a quarter of a second short of Verstappen's best lap time in qualifying. However, he believes he could have achieved better results with more practice.

"I think nowadays you need to be 100% to beat Max and today I wasn't. And probably due to that, I missed out on pole," he remarked.

"I will give it my absolute everything to do it because it's been a while since Singapore, and he's been on that top step since.

"But yeah, if there's one weekend where we have a good pace, it's this one. Tricky track to overtake, tricky on tyres. So who knows? I think we might have a chance."

Meanwhile, Sainz's teammate Charles Leclerc secured fifth place in qualifying but moved up to fourth on the grid following a grid penalty imposed on Red Bull's Sergio Perez.

Perez, initially third in qualifying, will start from sixth position.

Leclerc, who topped the timesheets in the final two practice sessions, encountered balance issues during qualifying and opted to abort his final run in the last session.

"All in all, not a clean qualifying," Leclerc admitted.

"I wasn’t really happy with the feeling of the car, but tomorrow it’s a long race.

"There are four DRS zones and from now on I’ll focus on that to try and maximise the result from where we start."