The McLaren driver was on track to be starting the race from the top-three on the grid, but was pipped late in Q3 on Saturday.

The 22-year-old qualified sixth fastest, but lifted a place in the rankings when Red Bull's Sergio Perez was demoted three spots having "unnecessarily impeded" Haas driver Nico Hulkenberg during Q1.

Piastri will be hoping to improve on the eighth spot he secured in a frantic race last year on his Albert Park debut.

"It has been a pretty good weekend so far," 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."

Piastri's fellow Australian Daniel Ricciardo was left disappointed after being eliminated in Q1 for the first time at Albert Park, on his return to racing at the circuit for the first time since 2022.

Ricciardo surged into the top-10 near the end of the session and seemed certain to continue his impressive record of never qualifying lower than 15th in Melbourne.

But the 34-year-old was deemed to have exceeded track limits and was pushed back to start from 18th place.

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."

It will be the first time since Ricciardo was on the grid with Mark Webber in 2013 that two Australians will line up for the same F1 race at Albert Park.

Australian Associated Press