Albon disqualified from Australian GP qualifying

Alex Albon has been disqualified from qualifying after the FIA failed to extract a fuel sample from his Williams.

The Thai-British driver qualified 16th ahead of Kevin Magnussen, Sebastian Vettel, team-mate Nicholas Latifi and Lance Stroll.

On the way back to the pits, however, Albon ground to a halt after turn 12 and upon his FW44's return to the pits, scrutineers were able to yield only 0.33 litres of fuel from the tank.

This means Albon has been excluded from the qualifying classification.

A report from the investigation read: "After Qualifying Car 23 [Albon] had insufficient fuel to yield the required 1.0-litre sample.

"Given this situation, Car 23 is not in compliance with the requirements of Article 6.5 of the FIA Formula One Technical Regulations. According to Art. 6.5.2 competitors must ensure that a 1.0-litre sample of fuel may be taken from the car at any time.

"The procedure was followed however the 1.0-litre sample of fuel was unable to be taken.

"The Stewards determine to apply the standard penalty for technical infringements. Therefore they took into account, that it shall be no defence to claim that no performance advantage was obtained.

Explaining that Albon would be allowed to take part in the race on Sunday, the report continued: "The Stewards have received a request from Williams Racing to allow Car 23 to start the race.

"The Stewards, therefore, grant permission for Car 23, Alex Albon to start the race."

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