Daniel Ricciardo has suffered his worst qualifying end in Melbourne, being knocked out of Q1 for the primary time at Albert Park.
Max Verstappen took pole place for Sunday’s race with a blistering lap, forward of Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz and Pink Bull teammate Sergio Perez.
In a good qualifying session the place many drivers struggled for grip, Ricciardo appeared to have made it by way of to Q2 in his RB, after ending the primary session Twelfth-fastest.
However his quickest lap was deleted attributable to operating off the observe, dropping the Australian all the way down to 18th for Sunday’s race.
RB crew principal Laurent Mekies mentioned it was a call that was tough to swallow.
“Look it’s totally tough to swallow, however that is the way in which it’s. Daniel was doing an excellent job, most likely his greatest lap to this point of the weekend,” Mekies mentioned.
“However it’s the way in which it’s, he was a bit vast in flip 5 and for simply centimetres we have been off observe.
“On the constructive aspect, he has been not absolutely snug with the automobile for a giant a part of the weekend and what we noticed in quali he was getting there.
“So I am positive there’s extra to come back for tomorrow’s race.”
Ricciardo’s RB teammate Yuki Tsunoda was the most effective performers on Saturday, pushing his RB as much as ninth.
In entrance of 130,806 spectators — a file for Saturday at Albert Park — fellow Australian Oscar Piastri certified sixth in his McLaren.
In the meantime, Max Verstappen was excellent on the finish of qualifying to take a second-consecutive pole in Melbourne.
Ferrari seemed to be the automobile to beat at first of the session earlier than the triple-world champion put his foot down and went quickest with a 1:15.915.
“A bit sudden at the moment, however very proud of Q3 — each laps felt very good,” Verstappen mentioned.
“A little bit of a difficult weekend to this point, [Ferrari] appear very fast within the lengthy runs in order that makes tomorrow thrilling.”
Sargeant offers option to teammate Albon at Williams
There can be simply 19 runners for Sunday’s race, with Williams solely capable of subject one automobile following a shunt on Friday.
Alex Albon had a nasty crash within the first follow session on Friday, with the harm to the chassis so unhealthy it can’t be mounted this weekend.
Williams didn’t have a spare chassis accessible in Melbourne.
Regardless of Albon being the one who crashed and wrecked his automobile for the weekend, Williams elected to take away American Logan Sargeant for the remainder of the weekend.
Albon scored 27 of Williams’s 28 factors in 2023 and he has been the perfect positioned between himself and Sargeant within the opening two races this season.
This led to Williams deciding to place him into the one operating automobile they’d left.
Williams crew principal James Vowles praised Sargeant’s sacrifice for the crew and declared the scenario his crew is in as unacceptable.
“This determination was not made flippantly, and we can’t thank Logan sufficient for his swish acceptance, demonstrating his dedication to the crew; he’s a real crew participant,” Vowles advised media, based on F1.com.
“It is unacceptable in modern-day Formulation 1 to not have a spare chassis however it’s a reflection of how behind we have been within the winter interval and an illustration of why we have to undergo vital change as a way to get ourselves in a greater place for the long run.
“It will show a troublesome weekend for Williams, and this case isn’t one that we are going to put ourselves in once more.”
Albon was capable of qualify Twelfth-fastest, the crew’s equal-best qualifying to this point this season.
Be part of ABC Sport on Sunday at abc.internet.au/sport as Mick Doyle stay blogs the Australian Grand Prix.
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