David Croft says one moment left Australian Grand Prix crowd ‘shellshocked’

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One moment stunned the crowd at the Australian Grand Prix on Saturday, Sky Sports F1 commentator David Croft said.

Max Verstappen rallied from a deficit in the first two parts of qualifying to take pole position ahead of Carlos Sainz.

But Croft said during Sky’s coverage that there was an upset that caught the spectators at Albert Park by surprise.

Sergio Perez qualified third in the other Red Bull but will start sixth after picking up a three-place grid penalty for impeding Nico Hulkenberg.

That promotes Lando Norris to third in the McLaren alongside the Ferrari of Charles Leclerc, while home favourite Oscar Piastri starts fifth.

George Russell out-qualified Lewis Hamilton again after the seven-time world champion bowed out in Q2, but he could only manage seventh himself.

Yuki Tsunoda took an impressive eighth place for RB ahead of the Aston Martin duo of Lance Stroll and Fernando Alonso.

Lewis Hamilton exit leaves Australia crowd gobsmacked

Hamilton improved on his second run in Q2 but he remained in 10th place, which left him vulnerable.

Tsunoda then crossed the line with a faster time to dump the two-time Australian Grand Prix winner out.

It was his poorest qualifying performance at this circuit since 2010, when he was racing for McLaren.

Croft said the British driver had many supporters in the grandstands who couldn’t believe what they saw.

“130,000 fans here – many of them with Mercedes-Benz caps on – a little bit shellshocked after that,” he said.

Hamilton demeanour changes quickly in Australia

Hamilton has endured his poorest start to a season since 2009, having finished seventh in Bahrain and ninth in Saudi Arabia.

However, the 39-year-old appeared to arrive at the Albert Park circuit with renewed hope about his prospects.

F1TV journalist Lawrence Baretto said Hamilton seemed to have a ‘spring in his step’ as he carried out media duties on Thursday.

He insisted that his W15 car could reach an ‘amazing’ level once the team unlocked its potential.

However, he soon found himself on the backfoot once again after a wretched FP2 on Friday.

Hamilton ranked 18th in a session with 19 classified runners and, according to Croft’s colleague Karun Chandhok, looked ‘dejected’ after the day’s running.

He’d informed his Mercedes team over the radio that ‘something’s wrong’ after discovering his relative pace.

Hamilton suffered four Q2 eliminations in 2023, the last of which came at the season finale in Abu Dhabi.

Starting from 11th that day, he was only able to gain two places as he finished ninth.