Verstappen makes up for Gasly's 'unfortunate' early exit

It was the classic "good news, bad news" scenario at Red Bull, with Max Verstappen successfully clinching fourth place on the grid for the Australian Grand Prix.

But lined up against that was a disappointing qualifying début in team colours for new signing Pierre Gasly, who was promoted from Toro Rosso over the winter to fill the empty seat left by Daniel Ricciardo.

The Frenchman ended up getting caught out by rapidly evolving track conditions at Melbourne's Albert Park Circuit and missed the cut at the end of Q1, meaning that he will line up in a disappointing 17th place on the grid.

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"Unfortunately Pierre - after a strong first lap - didn’t improve on his second flying lap," confirmed team boss Christian Horner. "With the circuit evolving and other cars electing to take another set of tyres, he just missed the cut.

"Whilst that’s hugely frustrating for him, I’m sure he will recover and race hard from there tomorrow.”

“I had a bit of traffic in Turn 1, but apart from that I was quite happy with my Q1 lap," Gasly explained afterwards.

"We went for one run whilst most others went for two and it cost us," reported the 23-year-old.. "I think we’ve been quite optimistic as we didn’t expect such track evolution and the pack to be so close."

Red Bull consultant Dr Helmut Marko said it had been the team's fault.

“A stupid mistake from our strategy people, and we have to apologise to him for this stupid mistake,” he told Motorsport.com, saying that the team had miscalculated the predicted cut-off time and “how much a second set of tyres brings”.

Despite the outcome, Gasly was still feeling optimistic about Sunday's race and for his prospects for the season as a whole. "We’re not exactly where we’d like to be but session after session we’re going in the right direction," he said.

"There were not many overtakes at last year’s race so starting from where we are, it’s going to be difficult but we will of course try and make it into the points.

"It’s a tough day today but we need to stay positive. For me, tomorrow will be all about gaining experience in the car and recovering positions.”

Despite Gasly's disappointing outing, his team mate Max Verstappen confirmed that Red Bull are looking in rude health thanks to their new engine partnership with Honda delivering the performance that Red Bull was looking for.

"I am pretty happy with the way qualifying went," he said. "I think we can be pleased with the second row.

""Fourth is better than we expected going into qualifying," he admitted. "It has been tricky finding a good balance and we are of course not where we want to be in terms of the gap [to Mercedes and Ferrari], but we also have to be realistic and happy with this grid position.

"It was really tight in Q1 and on a street circuit like this you really have to nail the first run," he commented. "I was lucky to have that second lap on the board where I improved, but it was really tight - especially as we only used one set of tyres, unlike many others.

"I definitely felt the extra performance coming from the [Honda] qualifying mode which is also very pleasing," he added.

Horner complimented the 21-year-old's "very strong session" and "impressive lap in Q3."

"Splitting the Ferraris was an excellent effort on his last run," the team boss added. "And he’s getting our new power unit partnership off to a great start with Honda’s highest qualifying position in the current V6 era."

It's certainly all looking much more promising for the Dutch driver than it had overnight, when the team was forced to replace Verstappen's chassis following the end of Friday's free practice sessions.

"It’s difficult to say where we will be tomorrow," said Verstappen. "After some of the difficulties we’ve had this weekend, especially this morning, I was a bit worried.

"The guys here and back at the factory have been working really well together to find a good set-up.

"[However] I didn’t get to do a full long run on Friday," he pointed out. "It looks like the tyres are holding on quite well, so as long as we get a clean start, we will find out what we can really do.

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