Carlos Sainz has rejected suggestions that he redeemed himself in Barcelona by performing so strongly for Toro Rosso.

The Spaniard qualified a strong eighth at his home circuit on Saturday, five places ahead of his new teammate Daniil Kvyat, who returns from the top squad to Red Bull's junior team.

All the attention, however, has been on Sainz's former teammate this weekend as he stepped up to Red Bull Racing, but Sainz says that comparing his eighth with Max Verstappen's impressive fourth is "not fair".

"I am no longer in the comparison with Verstappen," he told the Spanish media. "I think Red Bull is on another planet."

Sainz said that performing so strongly in Spain, and clearly beating Kvyat, was not a type of vindication of his talents after being overlooked in favour of Verstappen.

"I did not need vindicating," the 21-year-old insisted. "I don't think I needed to redeem myself.

"If I had had a bad year and a half and Max was chosen to go up to Red Bull because I didn't do well, then that might be the case, but I have always been fast.

"I have been the same for a long time and I don't think anybody saw something today from me that they had not seen before."

Mercedes's Lewis Hamilton will be on pole when the Barcelona race gets underway this afternoon.