Daniel Ricciardo has suffered his worst qualifying result in Melbourne, being knocked out of Q1 for the first time at Albert Park.

Max Verstappen took pole position for Sunday's race with a blistering lap, ahead of Ferrari's Carlos Sainz and Red Bull teammate Sergio Perez.

In a tight qualifying session where many drivers struggled for grip, Ricciardo appeared to have made it through to Q2 in his RB, after finishing the first session 12th-fastest. 

But his fastest lap was deleted due to running off the track, dropping the Australian down to 18th for Sunday's race.

RB team principal Laurent Mekies said it was a decision that was difficult to swallow.

"Look it's very difficult to swallow, but that's the way it is. Daniel was doing a very good job, probably his best lap so far of the weekend," Mekies said.

"But it's the way it is, he was a bit wide in turn five and for just centimetres we were off track.

"On the positive side, he has been not fully comfortable with the car for a big part of the weekend and what we saw in quali he was getting there.

"So I'm sure there's more to come for tomorrow's race."

Ricciardo knew at the time he had made a mistake, but forgot about it until being told by the RB garage.

"The time got deleted, but the lap itself was definitely the best-quality lap I've done this year," he said.

"There's still some things we're going to look at because it's been definitely a struggle so far. 

"I don't think it's sunk in yet (that he will be starting from 18th). It's certainly painful.

"The only thing I can be optimistic about is the home crowd is great."

Ricciardo's RB teammate Yuki Tsunoda was one of the best performers on Saturday, pushing his RB up to ninth.

In front of 130,806 spectators — a record for Saturday at Albert Park — fellow Australian Oscar Piastri qualified sixth in his McLaren.

"It has been a pretty good weekend so far," the 22-year-old Piastri said. 

"I felt like Q2 was very strong and then (we) just didn't quite get it together in Q3 there, so mixed emotions.

"We were maybe a little bit more competitive than we expected, which is good, but just didn't quite get the most out of the car.

"We can see what we can do in the race tomorrow; it is going to be a pretty complicated race."

Meanwhile, Max Verstappen was outstanding at the end of qualifying to take a second-consecutive pole in Melbourne.

Ferrari looked to be the car to beat at the start of the session before the triple-world champion put his foot down and went fastest with a 1:15.915.

"A bit unexpected today, but very happy with Q3 — both laps felt very nice," Verstappen said.

"A bit of a tricky weekend so far, [Ferrari] seem very quick in the long runs so that makes tomorrow exciting."

There will be just 19 runners for Sunday's race, with Williams only able to field one car following a shunt on Friday.

Alex Albon had a nasty crash in the first practice session on Friday, with the damage to the chassis so bad it cannot be fixed this weekend.

Williams did not have a spare chassis available in Melbourne.

Despite Albon being the one who crashed and wrecked his car for the weekend, Williams elected to remove American Logan Sargeant for the rest of the weekend.

Albon scored 27 of Williams's 28 points in 2023 and he has been the best placed between himself and Sargeant in the opening two races this season.

This led to Williams deciding to put him into the only running car they had left.

Williams team principal James Vowles praised Sargeant's sacrifice for the team and declared the situation his team is in as unacceptable.

"This decision was not made lightly, and we cannot thank Logan enough for his graceful acceptance, demonstrating his dedication to the team; he is a true team player," Vowles told media, according to F1.com.

"It's unacceptable in modern day Formula 1 not to have a spare chassis but it is a reflection of how behind we were in the winter period and an illustration of why we need to go through significant change in order to get ourselves in a better position for the future.

"This will prove a tough weekend for Williams, and this situation is not one that we will put ourselves in again."

Albon was able to qualify 12th-fastest, the team's equal-best qualifying so far this season.

Join ABC Sport on Sunday at abc.net.au/sport as Mick Doyle live blogs the Australian Grand Prix.