Red Bull and Mercedes drivers suffer shock exits from Australian GP qualifying

Kimi Antonelli and Liam Lawson both suffered shock early exits in Q1 at the F1 season-opening Australian Grand Prix.

Antonelli on his Mercedes debut was 16th and on the bubble in the closing stages of Q1 as Mercedes sent him out on softs after trying mediums on the first runs. 

The Italian moved out of the drop zone but was only 14th fastest, and was ultimately dumped out by reigning F2 champion Gabriel Bortoleto in the Stake at the death. 

Mercedes later reported that it had seen "bib damage on Kimi’s car during his second run. That caused a loss of performance for his final two laps, unfortunately," after the W16 was seen sparking during a flying lap.

As for Lawson, who missed the entire FP3 running following a power unit issue, his weekend went from bad to worse, with the Kiwi abandoning a scrappy final lap after running wide exiting Turn 10. 

He radioed that he had "no tyres at the end of the lap" as he also ran wide through the final corner before aborting.

He will start 18th, with Nico Hulkenberg in 17th, Esteban Ocon in 19th and Ollie Bearman 20th, as his own woes continued with his car developing a gearbox issue on his out-lap, having crashed out of FP3 after missing FP2 following an FP1 crash, leaving him with just 14.5 laps heading into the race.

Lando Norris topped the segment for McLaren.