For Sergio Perez, qualifying was over after just over five minutes. On his first flying lap, the Red Bull Racing driver braked, failing to make the corner and getting stuck in the gravel. The Mexican will start at the back in the Australian Grand Prix on Sunday.
Perez already had a very difficult third free practice session. There were problems with the front end of Perez's RB19 and, according to Helmut Marko, even"everything went wrong". For Max Verstappen's team-mate, it is a major setback after his victory a fortnight ago in Saudi Arabia.
He himself revealed over the team radio: "We need to sort that issue man. It was the same f****** issue again." Another technical problem with the car, it seems.