Daniel Ricciardo crushed in heartbreaking Aus Grand Prix scenes

Daniel Ricciardo was dealt a cruel blow at his home Grand Prix after the Aussie star was penalised by the smallest of margins.

It was a crushing day for Ricciardo. (Photo by Peter Fox/Getty Images)

Another qualifying, another Max Verstappen pole position.

The Red Bull maestro continued his dominant run as he secured pole for the Australian Grand Prix ahead of Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz.

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It was however joy and pain for the Aussie duo, with Oscar Piastri and Daniel Ricciardo finding themselves at opposite ends of the grid.

In only his second season, Piastri showed that he and McLaren will be up for the fight when he starts from sixth on the grid, while teammate Lando Norris will start from fourth.

Sadly it was heartbreak for compatriot Ricciardo, who was eliminated in Q1 for the first time at an Australian Grand Prix.

Ricciardo produced a stellar final lap to climb up into spot 11 and into Q2, but shortly after the session came to an end his lap time was deleted for exceeding track limits at turn five.

It means Ricciardo will now start the Grand Prix from 18th on the grid, only ahead of Zhou Guanyu.

In the three races so far this season, the 34-year-old has failed to out-qualify his teammate Yuki Tsunoda who will start the race from eighth.

Ricciardo went wide.

Verstappen was at his dominant best, setting a track record around Albert Park to knock Sainz off by 0.270 seconds.

Red Bull teammate Sergio Perez will start directly behind Verstappen with Norris lining up alongside him.

Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc had the pace throughout practice and qualifying but abandoned his final flying lap after coming unstuck in the last two corners.

The most shocking loss from the qualifying hour however was seven-time F1 champion Lewis Hamilton, who failed to make it into the third and final session.

Hamilton sat on the cusp of making it into Q3 before he was knocked out by Tsunoda’s final lap.

Verstappen couldn’t be caught. (Photo by Martin KEEP / AFP)

Visa Cash App RB team principal Laurent Mekies spoke shortly after Ricciardo was eliminated and was devastated by the news.

“Look it’s very difficult to swallow, but that’s the way it is. Daniel was doing a very good job, probably his best lap so far of the weekend so far was a 17:4, it would’ve been more than enough probably to get him close to a top 10 actually,” Mekies said to Sky Sports.

“But it’s the way it is, he was a bit wide in turn 5 and for just centimetres we were off track.

“Very difficult to swallow but that’s the way it is. On the positive side, he has been not fully comfortable with the car for a big part of the weekend and what we saw in qualy he was getting there.

“So I’m sure there’s more to come for tomorrow’s race.”

AUSTRALIAN GRAND PRIX STARTING GRID

Front row: Max Verstappen (Red Bull), Carlos Sainz (Ferrari)

Second row: Lando Norris (McLaren), Charles Leclerc (Ferrari)

Third row: Oscar Piastri (McLaren), Sergio Perez (Red Bull)

Fourth row: George Russell (Mercedes), Yuki Tsunoda (RB)

Fifth row: Lance Stroll (Aston Martin), Fernando Alonso (Aston Martin)

Sixth row: Lewis Hamilton (Mercedes), Alex Albon (Williams)

Seventh row: Valtteri Bottas (Stake), Kevin Magnussen (Haas)

Eighth row: Esteban Ocon (Alpine), Nico Hulkenberg (Haas)

Ninth row: Pierre Gasly (Alpine), Daniel Ricciardo (RB)

Tenth row: Zhou Guanyu (Stake)

Originally published as Daniel Ricciardo crushed in heartbreaking Aus Grand Prix scenes