Sergio Perez had a qualifying disaster in Melbourne as he beached his Red Bull in the gravel on his very first attempt to complete a lap.
With the threat of rain looming over the Albert Park track, everyone headed out early in Q1 to set a time in case the heavens opened. But it appears Perez was a little too eager to get going, as he lost control of his car just seconds into his first flying lap and got stuck in a gravel trap.
The sessions was red-flagged as a result until the stranded RB19 could be rescued and towed down a service road. It meant Max Verstappen was Red Bull's only hope for pole position for the Australian Grand Prix.
Despite his mistake, Perez clearly felt the fault laid with his car and team as he raged over the radio. "We need to sort that issue man, it was the same f***ing issue. Again," he said angrily.
It marked a continuation of a difficult weekend so far for Perez. Every driver lost time on Friday as rain during FP2 put a stop to much meaningful running, but the Mexican's plans for Saturday morning's FP3 session were also disrupted.
For the first 20 minutes of the session he was stuck in his garage as his engineers checked a reported suspension problem. And when he did eventually get out on track he was blocked on a fast lap by Nico Hulkenberg who was in the middle of a longer run on high-fuel.
He was also clearly struggling with his tyres as he suffered back to back mistakes at turn three. On consecutive push laps, the Mexican went off the track at that area of the track and was forced to abort his pushing.
His qualifying disaster means Perez will start Sunday's race in Melbourne from the very back of the grid. He will be sharing the back row with Valtteri Bottas who set the slowest lap time of anyone else on the track.
It was a qualifying session to forget for Alfa Romeo with Zhou Guanyu also failing to make it out of Q1. Logan Sargeant split the two Alfas and will start 18th on the grid, while hometown hero Oscar Piastri could only manage to go 16th fastest – much to the disappointment of the Albert Park fans.
