Oscar Piastri will start the Australian Grand Prix from 16th on the grid after a disappointing result in qualifying for his home race on Saturday.
Max Verstappen will start from pole position, while Mercedes showed good signs with George Russell and Lewis Hamilton qualifying second and third fastest. It’s Red Bull’s first pole position in Melbourne since 2013.
Piastri showed glimpses of decent pace in the practice sessions, during which he received his first reprimand in Formula One.
He was 14th fastest in practice but complained of issues with his McLaren during Q1, where he struggled to put a fast lap together.
Piastri was just outside the top 15, putting him in the relegation zone as he was eliminated from qualifying along with Zhou Guanyu, Logan Sargeant, Valtteri Bottas and Sergio Perez, who put his Red Bull into the gravel.
“The problem with Piastri, it’s just car set up,” Sky Sports commentator Ted Kravitz said.
“He’s just been on the radio, he feels the car is underbalanced. He just doesn’t have the McLaren where he wants it.”
2009 world champion Jenson Button said: “Oh that’s painful. Painful. His teammate was up in P12.
“It’s so difficult those conditions. He’s never experienced that before. You can do multiple laps on a set of tyres, but (he) just didn’t get the lap together in the end, which is a shame.”
It was a disastrous qualifying for McLaren, with Lando Norris failing to make it out of Q2.
David Croft added: “It’s been a season of struggles for McLaren so far.”
Norris and Piastri will be up against it on Sunday to finish in the top 10 and score the team’s first championship points of the season.
No Aussie driver has ever finished on the podium at the Australian Grand Prix since it was added to F1’s championship in 1985, and it seems that streak won’t be broken this year.
“Obviously a shame to be out in Q1. Just missing those last couple of tenths - I’m sure there’s some margin on driving,” Piastri said after qualifying.
“It felt like a good lap but nothing amazing. We’ve said the whole season it’s so tight between the teams that are around us and I think today showed that. Just not quite quick enough.”
He added: “I’ll try my best of course (tomorrow), we’ll see what the overtaking’s like, I think for everyone out there it’ll be pretty difficult.
“It’s historically not the easiest track to overtake on. We’ll try our best and see what we can do.”
Earlier, the McLaren rookie was summoned to the FIA stewards after the final practice session before qualifying for an infringement in relation to the practice start procedure.
The FIA stewards summary found Piastri had “lost concentration” at the end of the practice session when he was preparing to perform a practice start, but had attempted it a “lap too early”, failing to take the chequered flag before doing so.
Piastri admitted he had made a mistake and could have caused a dangerous situation on track, as he accepted his first reprimand of the season.
“The driver admitted that he had lost concentration and was preparing to do a practice start but attempted it a lap too early, having failed to take the chequered flag before doing so,” the stewards summary said.
“After he slowed down considerably, the team warned him to complete the lap before attempting a practice start and therefore he did not go through the full practice start procedure.
“The driver candidly admitted his mistake and recognised that this could have resulted in a dangerous situation on the track.
“In accordance with previous precedents for similar infringements, we imposed a reprimand on him.”
The Australian Grand Prix gets underway on Sunday at 3pm (AEST).
Provisional Aus Grand Prix starting grid
1) Max Verstappen
2) George Russell
3) Lewis Hamilton
4) Fernando Alonso
5) Carlos Sainz
6) Lance Stroll
7) Charles Leclerc
8) Alex Albon
9) Pierre Gasly
10) Niko Hulkenberg
11) Esteban Ocon
12) Yuki Tsunoda
13) Lando Norris
14) Kevin Magnussen
15) Nyck de Vries
16) Oscar Piastri
17) Zhou Guanyu
18) Logan Sargeat
19) Valtteri Bottas
20) Sergio Perez
