F1 pundit Alice Powell says one driver will be ‘hugely disappointed’ after an early exit in Australian Grand Prix qualifying.
There were only one four drivers eliminated in Q1 in Melbourne because there were only 19 cars running.
And Powell, speaking on Channel 4’s qualifying highlights show, said one of them would be particularly gutted.
Williams only ran one car in the session, with James Vowles sidelining Logan Sargeant in favour of Alex Albon.
The latter had damaged his FW46 beyond short-term repair in a practice crash but the team allowed him to jump him in his teammate’s machinery instead.
This opened the door for an extra driver to sneak into the second part of qualifying.
Alpine’s Esteban Ocon, who failed to make it past Q1 in the first two sessions, was the beneficiary.
He set a lap time nearly four tenths quicker than Haas driver Nico Hulkenberg.
The other Alpine of Pierre Gasly fell by the wayside in 17th.
Home favourite Daniel Ricciardo was 18th after race control deleted one of his lap times for exceeding track limits.
Sauber’s Zhou Guanyu propped up the order after unwittingly sustaining damage on his final run.
Alice Powell critical of Daniel Ricciardo after qualifying woes
Ricciardo’s final lap was good enough to see him comfortably through, but replays showed that he’d run wide on the exit of turn four.
Powell doesn’t think he would have much of an impression in Q2 anyway, and has warned him up to his game.
She says reserve driver Liam Lawson is ‘waiting in the wings’ in case Ricciardo fails to improve.
The New Zealander deputised for the race-winner at five Grands Prix last season after he broke his hand.
Powell said: “He’s just had an absolute shocker. He got his lap taken away for track limits, but it wasn’t looking good even though he had the lap taken away.
“He’ll be hugely disappointed. He needs to start pulling out some results, because of course we’ve got Liam Lawson waiting in the wings.”
Ricciardo under mounting pressure at RB
Ricciardo started the year looking like a ‘dead-cert’ to replace Sergio Perez and return to Red Bull in 2025.
Back in the car for the beginning of the season after taking over from Nyck de Vries midway through last year, he’s struggled to find form.
Teammate Yuki Tsunoda, who impressed in eighth place, now leads their qualifying head-to-head 3-0.
Neither driver has scored a point so far but the Japanese driver is in a good position to do just that on Sunday.
Sky Sports F1’s Karun Chandhok said prior to qualifying that Ricciardo hasn’t been doing ‘enough’ this season.
And in the words of colleague David Croft, the manner of his Q1 exit will be a source of real ‘disappointment’.
These poor performances have ‘puzzled’ Ricciardo, who has expected better himself.
The former McLaren driver has scored 32 podiums in his career but knows that will count for little if he doesn’t reward Red Bull for giving him a second chance.
Director Helmut Marko has already warned him that he must improve ‘soon’ relative to Tsunoda.
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