Melbourne, April 9: Alex Albon has been disqualified from the results of qualifying for the Australian Grand Prix, after his Williams team were unable to provide the FIA with a sufficient fuel sample from his FW44.

Albon took P16 in qualifying in Melbourne, faring better than his luckless team mate Nicholas Latifi, who was swiped by Aston Martin's Lance Stroll into a heavy crash in Q1, for which Stroll received a three-place grid drop.

Already with his own three-place grid drop hanging over him (ironically for his crash with Stroll in Jeddah), Albon then stopped out on track after dropping out of Q1 - with Williams later unable to provide the required 1.0-litre fuel sample to the FIA, as dictated by Article 6.5.2 of the FIA Formula 1 Technical Regulations. The stewards therefore disqualified the Thai driver from the results of qualifying - although he will be allowed to start Sunday's race at Albert Park.

Later in qualifying, Ferrari's Charles Leclerc took the first Australian Grand Prix pole position since 2019 with a blistering performance at Albert Park - with Red Bull's Max Verstappen lining up second on the grid for Sunday's race.

Sergio Perez qualified third but the Mexican driver was due to visit the stewards after the session to discuss a possible yellow flag infringement during Q2.

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