The Spaniard, who notched his two F1 poles earlier this year at Silverstone and Spa, fell short in the Q3 shootout at Suzuka to slip behind pacesetter Max Verstappen and Ferrari teammate Charles Leclerc.
Sainz appeared to have the measure of a scruffy Leclerc throughout the dry running on Saturday but at the death in qualifying, he slipped behind and was 0.057s adrift of Red Bull driver Verstappen's benchmark time.
