The Australian Grand Prix stewards have confirmed the HRT drivers will not be allowed to start the race.

Pedro de la Rosa and Narain karthikeyan were 1.2 and 1.4 seconds outside the 107% time in Q1 respectively.

It is the second year in a row HRT have failed to start the first race of the season. The pair did a total of 45 laps in first practice.

De la Rosa said: “We did all we could today.

“The team put in a great shift and just making it to today was an accomplishment for us, because these days have been very hard for all of us, including the drivers.

“But there?������s a lot of room for improvement and, although it?������s true that we have to change many things, we know what they are, so all I can say is that we need to be patient.

“I already said it when I arrived on Wednesday, this is a test for us, it?������s our pre-season. The downside is that we?������re doing it in front of the cameras because everything is more evident.

“We should have done it before but we lacked the time, so now all we can do is work for Malaysia and the following races and focus on the important areas to make the car quicker”.

Karthikeyan added: “We knew it would be tough coming into Australia but today?������s result is hugely disappointing for any driver, there?������s no doubt about that.

“We can try and come up with excuses but, at the end of the day, we lacked pre-season running time. We were up against it from the word go and yesterday?������s weather wasn?������t good which resulted in us losing a lot of dry running, hurting us badly.

“We?������ve had a lot of issues with the car, which is something normal during preseason, but the problem is that this weekend was our own particular preseason and we were fighting against the clock. So there?������s a fair amount of work to do and hopefully we can improve and move on from this”.

2012 Australian Grand Prix

Image ?�?� HRT F1 Team