Ricciardo flies as Kvyat suffers early elimination in Melbourne

MELBOURNE, AUSTRALIA - MARCH 19: Daniil Kvyat of Russia drives the (26) Red Bull Racing Red Bull-TAG Heuer RB12 TAG Heuer on track during qualifying for the Australian Formula One Grand Prix at Albert Park on March 19, 2016 in Melbourne, Australia. (Photo by Mark Thompson/Getty Images) // Getty Images / Red Bull Content Pool // P-20160319-00089 // Usage for editorial use only // Please go to www.redbullcontentpool.com for further information. // PNL-160319-061948002

Red Bull Racing's Daniil Kvyat became one of the first victims of F1's new qualifying system when he was knocked out of Q1 for Sunday's Australian Grand Prix.

The Russian will start 18th as he struggled to get heat into the tyres on his RB12, meaning he fell victim to the new elimination style of qualifying.

“It was hard to say what it was,” said Kvyat. “It doesn’t feel great to start this season this way so we have to learn from it. We were in the middle of the pack so we lost heat. The second lap was clean but it wasn’t enough.”

Meanwhile home crowd hero Daniel Ricciardo made it through to Q3, but was the first elimination and will start eighth.

World champion Lewis Hamilton will start from pole position, with both Toro Rosso cars starting ahead of Red Bull.