Red Bull team boss Christian Horner believes not even Mercedes could have anticipated their lead in Australian GP qualifying.

The German manufacturer locked out the front row with Sebastian Vettel 0.7s down on polesitter Lewis Hamilton in third, completely against the form book from testing.

In the team's first flat-out session with Honda, Max Verstappen put in a late effort to finish fourth.

“Mercedes is miles ahead of everyone else, but I don’t think they would have expected that they would be that fast either,” Horner said on Saturday.

“The second row [for Verstappen] was really the maximum attainable.”

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There was disappointment for new driver Pierre Gasly, however, as a decision not to run again in Q1 left him only 17th and facing a fight back through the field.

“Unfortunately his second lap [on the first set] was not quicker, as Max had gone,” the Red Bull chief explained.

“We were relying on that first set of tyres to get him through and unfortunately, it didn’t happen for him.

“With 20/20 hindsight it’s easy to say that we should have taken another set of tyres.

“Obviously it’s all very tight, it’s frustrating for him in his first quali, but I’m sure he’ll race strongly from there tomorrow.”

Red Bull advisor Helmut Marko went further, however.

“A stupid mistake from our strategy people and we have to apologise to him for this stupid mistake,” he conceded.