Daniil Kvyat was the biggest casualty of the new-look elimination-style qualifying session in Australia when the Red Bull Racing dropped out early and ended the day in eighteenth position.
The Russian bemoaned traffic for compromising his opening effort, before the tyres gave up on him for his second lap, meaning he was the fifth driver eliminated from qualifying, after only the two Haas and Manor drivers.
Despite the lowly grid slot, Kvyat is still hopeful of working through the field and secure a top-ten points finish during the race around the Albert Park circuit on Sunday.
“Of course it’s frustrating to be P18 but we will learn from what we have done today,” said Kvyat. “My first lap was compromised by traffic so I had to give it up, and on the second push lap the tyres lost a lot of performance so it wasn’t enough.
“It’s a new system and someone had to get it wrong and today it was us but we have plenty of things to analyse from our short life in Q1.
“I will do my best to go through the field tomorrow, definitely. It’s not going to be enjoyable to start from P18 but it’s a long race and we have to try and squeeze everything out of it and bring some points home.”
